The Leah Chronicles
by 1monster2
Summary: The Marauders meet a young Ravenclaw named Leah on the train, and they change her life for the better...but she also changes theirs. A Marauders-era fic about how our fav four boys (and Lily and Severus, of course) deal with one of the first Hogwarts students with a mental disorder.
1. Meet The Marauders

**A/N: Hello, all! I am very happy to say that I HAVE MY ACTUAL LAPTOP BACK! YAY!** **So, now I can actually type without having to worry about not being able to get on at the same time! Haha…anyways, I've really gotten back into Harry Potter fanfiction lately…especially in the Marauders era. I don't know what it is, but I really love stories with young James/Sirius/Remus/Peter…before all of the crap that happened happened… (siriusly, JK?), and so I decided to write one myself. Yes, to all of my normal readers/reviewers, I will be continuing WJC…I just haven't been able to start on Chapter 3 yet. I also need to take a step back and plan it out, since I haven't actually figured out where it's going yet.** **I'll figure it out soon, though. I'm also working on another MALA chapter, a Narnia fanfiction, a Star Trek fanfiction, a Star Wars fanfiction, and…a bunch of other ones…I promise they'll all get out. Somehow. ;)**

 **Also, as in pretty much every story, I have a main character OC! Her name is Leah Thompson, and she is a fourth-year Ravenclaw. She meets the boys on the train to Hogwarts under…interesting circumstances. Leah will, just as a heads up, have at least one mental disorder, since it fit in the plot of the story, and because I decided that it was high time to write a character with the same sort of thing that I struggle with every day. Therefore, if you don't like reading stories about people with social anxiety (and possibly more "weird things"), this might not be the story for you.**

 **DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL!**

 **Tons of thanks and love to my beta, FansieFace! She's one of my Newsies "Core Three", and I asked her to take a look at this story! Thanks so much, FansieFace-and Hulu! ;) Hope you're both doing well!**

 **Without further adieu, please enjoy "** _ **The Leah Chronicles**_ **" Chapter 1!**

 _Awh crap…next time I need to make sure to find Lily_ _ **before**_ _I get on the train! Now everyone's staring at me…_

These were the thoughts of Leah Thompson, a fourth-year Ravenclaw. She had just boarded the Hogwarts Express, and usually sat in a compartment with Lily Evans and-annoying though he was-Severus Snape. However, she hadn't been able to find the older girl, and so had had to content herself with getting on near the back. She looked up and down the hallways, but there were no really open compartments…all of them were filled with people…and Leah didn't do people. Not at all.

By the time she had arrived back where she initially boarded the train, it was almost time for the train to leave. The conductor was glaring at her rather impatiently, and so Leah began to look for a compartment as fast as she could. The nearest one to her held four boys-two rather tall with dark hair (one with glasses, one without), a slightly shorter boy with blond hair, and a much shorter, somewhat stouter, and more nervous-looking boy, also with blond hair. They looked to be about a year older than her, and…

Oh crap.

Why did it have to be them?

Everyone knew about James Potter and his friends, and the masterful pranks they pulled frequently around the castle. Leah had pretended to be mad at them when her friends were, but she secretly admired the complex magic that they had been able to pull off. She had seen them before while hanging out with Lily, but never this close up…and never had the courage to talk to them.

 _Well, there's a first time for everything, I guess…_

She shuffled a little closer to the compartment door, and quietly knocked on the door. All four heads swung towards her, causing Leah to gulp and move backwards in fear. After a few seconds, she took a deep breath, drawing together her almost-non-existent courage.

"Is this…can I…everywhere else is full."

 _Smooth, Leah._ _ **Real**_ _smooth._

The taller blond boy-Remus Lupin, she recognized-smiled gently at her. "Of course you can sit in here. Just ignore these two nitwits."

"Oi! Who're you calling a nitwit, Moony?"

"I believe he was referring to you, Padfoot."

"I was including you, Prongs." Leah let out a light chuckle at their bantering, finding it a bit easier to enter the compartment. She was very thankful that she wasn't having to talk very much. Somehow, it seemed like the boys could tell she was uncomfortable with talking to people who she didn't know, and so they just continued to argue with each other. Finally, though, they stopped, and turned to Leah, who was sitting in the corner, as far up against the wall as she could be. "What's your name?" Sirius asked, grinning as he swatted away James's hand, which had been incessantly poking him in the side. Leah gulped again.

"Um…I'm-"

"Leah! There you are!"

Leah turned to look out of the compartment's window, and sighed in relief. Lily Evans stood there, and immediately swept into the compartment to give the younger girl a hug. "How are you? How was your summer? I've missed sitting with you today!" She looked up briefly to glare at the four boys, before turning back to her friend.

"Sorry, Lily-I couldn't find you before I got on, so I just got on the back end, because of…you know…" She cleared her throat, clearly uncomfortable with the boys overhearing something, "and then I couldn't find a suitably empty compartment, so I just took the closest one to the back. My summer was good…we went and visited my older brother and his Quidditch team out in America, and then hung out around London for a while. My sisters were nuts, but that's just normal behavior for them." She slowly sighed. "And you know how…sitting with Severus makes me feel."

Lily sighed, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, I know. Oh-the trolley lady's coming around this section of the train. Why don't you go get yourself something-on me?" Leah looked about to protest, but Lily shook her head, instead pulling her friend to her feet, slipping some Sickles into her hand, and pushing her out of the compartment. "Come on, Leah-you know me better than that! Go get something! These knuckleheads'll still be here when you get back!" Leah finally nodded, and headed off. Once she was out of earshot, Lily spun back to the boys. "I don't know why she chose to sit with you lot, but whatever you do, if you touch her, I swear I will-"

"Don't worry, Lily-I'll make sure nothing happens to her." Remus assured her. Lily let out a small sigh of relief. Out of the four boys, Remus was the one she trusted the most. Maybe it was because he was a prefect, or maybe because he didn't seem to get into as much trouble as his friends.

"Thanks. Oh, and by the way-if she seems very reluctant to talk, it's not because she is shy or secretly hates you and won't tell you."

"And why are you telling us this?"

"Because I know you, Potter, and I know you'll be asking her endless questions before too much longer. I just wanted to let you know that if she does choose to answer some of your questions, count yourself lucky. Leah suffers from social anxiety, and is terrified of social situations involving large groups of people, or people she doesn't know."

"I've heard of that-I thought it was only a Muggle thing."

"Wizards can have mental disorders just as commonly as Muggles can." Lily responded. Then, she sighed. "Look-apart from the Ravenclaw Quidditch team and some others in her house, I'm pretty much her only friend. If you want to join me, _fine_ , but don't rapid-fire questions at her. Start fighting with each other-or whatever it is that you four do-and let her feel like she's part of the group without having to say anything." She broke off as Leah came back to the compartment, carrying a bunch of Chocolate Frogs.

"I grabbed some Pumpkin Pastries for you too, Lily." Leah grinned. Lily rolled her eyes, but accepted the candy. "Thanks, Le. I'll leave you with these nutcases for now, but Severus and I are further up if you want to come hang out, all right?" Leah nodded, and Lily gave her a brief hug, before waltzing off towards her own compartment. Once she left, Leah seemed to deflate in the corner a bit, more nervous around the boys now that her friend was gone. Remus decided to change that. He scooted a little closer to Leah, before offering his hand. "You're Leah, right? I'm Remus Lupin, and these are my friends-Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter." Leah quietly shook his hand, before shyly waving at the others. "Hi-I'm Leah Thompson." she muttered. James's head shot up. "Leah Thompson…now where have I heard that name before…"

"You probably haven't." the younger girl responded, but James was already nodding, his eyes lighting up. "Do you play Quidditch, by any chance?"

"James, we-" Peter started to whisper, before Sirius stepped on his foot. Leah slowly grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I play Keeper for Ravenclaw."

"I knew it! You're the Keeper who stopped me from scoring sixty points last time we played each other!" All of the other Marauders remembered that game. James had missed multiple shots due to a very efficient Ravenclaw Keeper, who had stopped every one of his shots-and almost all of Gryffindor's shots as a team. The entire team had been frustrated with the loss, James included. They wouldn't tell Leah that, though.

"You're a bloody good Keeper, Leah." Sirius grinned at her. Leah smiled lightly in response. "Thanks. I think I get it from my brother. He plays Keeper for the American National Team."

"Wait…you have a brother who plays professional Quidditch? I bet you'd like that, Prongs!"

"Well, excuse me…" The two started bantering again. Leah looked between the two of them, and then back at Remus and Peter, who shrugged, as if to say, "What can you do?"

For a while, the four friends bantered amongst each other. Remus, James, and Sirius made sure to draw Leah into their joking, and she started to relax in their company. They even got her to talk a little about her family, especially her brother in America. "My older brother was a Gryffindor who graduated two years ago, and my two twin sisters are second-year Hufflepuffs. I'm the weird one out-my father was a Hufflepuff and my mother was a Gryffindor. My mother likes to say I have the brains of the family." The boys chuckled. "It'll be interesting this year…my sisters are trying out for Hufflepuff's Quidditch team this year…both as Beaters. If they do make the team, I'll have played against every one of my siblings. I played against my brother my second year."

"And nearly peed yourself, I heard!" A deep voice rang out from behind them. Leah gasped, chancing a glance out of the window, before groaning and sinking down as low as she could in her seat. "Oh no…no no no no."

 _Really? Why did it have to be now?_

"I didn't see you earlier, you little social butterfly! My friends and I had to search the whole train to find you!" Leah sighed, sinking down even lower in her seat, quietly groaning. (She tried to do it so that the boys didn't hear it, but Sirius, of course, heard it, being the dog that he was. He then proceeded to subtly kick James in the foot, who then kicked Peter, who then kicked Remus.)

"Hello, Montair." She sighed, closing her eyes in horror and shame. "I thought I had missed your big ugly mug today." A tall and overbearing Slytherin waltzed up to the compartment door. He had short brown hair, a large beak-shaped nose, and an overly large frame. James looked over at Leah, who had scooted as far back in the seats as she could, as was looking very uncomfortable.

James immediately didn't like him.

"Why don't you come and sit with my friends and I? I'm sure we'd be better company than this lot." Montair sneered, indicating the four Marauders. Leah faintly growled at him-which, again, Sirius heard-and shook her head. "I'm much more comfortable here with the four of them, thank you. I'm sure Severus would like nothing better than for you and Adoph and Bennett to go talk to him. And besides-it's not like you could ever make me go with you. The last time you tried that, Lily and I hexed you into next week."

 _SLAP!_

The slap occurred so quickly that none of the Marauders had a chance to react. Leah immediately jerked back in pain, holding the side of her face. Montair then stepped fully into the compartment and shoved her to the ground. She let out a gasp of pain. Montair chuckled from where he was standing over top of her. "You seem to forget-the only reason you got the better of me was that Mudblood friend of yours. You couldn't beat me on your own, you stupid inbred freak!" He kicked her in the ribs, before knocking her head against the seats. _That_ got the boys moving, if nothing else. Peter pulled Leah back towards the middle of the compartment, while Remus, Sirius, and James quickly darted in front of them. "Now, I don't know about you, Sirius, but I don't like when people hurt my friends. Do you?"

"No, mate, I don't really fancy it. And I think Remus and Peter would rather agree with me. I also don't think any of us like it when you call Lily Evans a Mudblood. Do you agree, Leah?" A slight bit of silence followed Sirius's question, as they all looked back to see Peter helping Leah slowly to her feet. She winced a bit as she stood, her ribs possibly a bit bruised, but she glared at Montair. "I agree. No one calls Lily Evans a Mudblood around me."

"Right, then," James declared, "now that that's out of the way…would you like to do the honors?" He hadn't really aimed the question at anyone, so all five people in the compartment pulled out their wands.

" _Abigo!_ "

" _Affligo!_ "

" _Avis Oppugno!_ "

" _Furnuculus!_ "

" _Levicorpus!_ "

Montair now made an interesting sight. He was strung up by his ankle, covered in boils, had birds flying at him to peck at him, was thrown back into the wall, and was repeatedly punched in the stomach. Upon first sight of him, everyone started laughing, including Leah. James even thought that he could see Lily and Severus some ways away down the corridor. Snape, of course, looked mad, but Lily looked as if she was smiling. James couldn't tell. He was just glad that Leah was laughing. Another prefect came down the hall, and everyone around seemed to scatter. Before whoever it was could yell at them, the Marauders and Leah had slammed their door shut and were laughing as hard as they could. Once they had calmed down somewhat, Remus turned to Leah, who was now holding her ribs a bit. "Are you all right?" he asked. Leah nodded, but then hissed in pain a bit as Peter nudged her right shoulder. Remus rolled his eyes, heading over to sit by her right side. She finally pulled up her sleeve so that he could see a nice cut coming down her shoulder. Remus smiled at her. "This shouldn't take too long. _Episky!_ " A second later, the cut was disappearing as the magic took effect. Leah grinned shyly at him. "Thanks, Remus." she muttered. Remus slung an arm around her shoulders, poking Sirius in the side as he did so. "Don't worry about it, Leah. But let us know if Montair comes after you again, all right? We'll give him a piece of our mind."

"Wait…you guys are going to keep talking to me after we get to school? I thought you wouldn't, since you're a year older than me, and we're in different houses, and-"

"Leah-relax. Of course we're going to keep talking to you. You're one of the only girls who like us for who we are, and not just because Prongs and Padfoot here are apparently good-looking."

"Oi! What're ya-"

"Shut it, Padfoot. You seem pretty cool to us-and since you are friends with Lily, James is going to _love_ you."

James rolled his eyes. "What Mooney is trying to say is that we like you, and we'd like to keep being friends with you. I mean, we've never had a 'younger sister' friend before." The bright grin on Leah's face solidified the friends' opinions.

They were going to look after Leah this year.

Montair wouldn't get near her again.

They wouldn't let him.

 _ **A/N 2: Well, this ended up much longer then I thought it was going to…Sorry for that! I just kinda got going and then I couldn't stop it…writing the Marauders is super fun! I apologize if Peter kinda gets shoved to the back sometimes…I don't like Peter as much (since he kinda leads to Lily and James's deaths and all), and so sometimes I don't mention him as much because I really don't like him now. And can you blaim me?**_

 _ **Anyways, this is just a "introductory" chapter…hopefully you'll all stick around for the next chapter!**_

 _ **I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you soon!**_

 _ **God bless,**_

 _ **1monster2**_


	2. You're Taking How Many Classes?

**A/N: Hello, all! So, this should be an interesting chapter…I don't have a plan yet for this story…I know where I want it to end, and I knew where I wanted it to begin. Besides that…well…I'll probably end up figuring that out as it comes.** **There will probably be chapters where it is just the Marauders, and chapters where it is just Leah…and yes, I know she has a** _ **lot**_ **of classes-which you will see in this chapter—but I'm working on a schedule for her right now, so she should have time for all of her classes. I think. As she says, they're not all on one day, so it's a bit easier to plan out.**

 **I should probably get back to the story, but a brief announcement…if any of my "** _ **Why Jack Cried**_ **" readers are reading this story (and I know biankies is, at least the last chapter), I have finished the outline/plan for that story, and will be starting work on Chapter 3 soon. I meant to this weekend, while I had Mid-Semester Break, but I didn't finish the plan until Saturday, and then had to work seven hours yesterday at school, and then am going to visit my school today, so…rest assured, I shall have it up soon.**

 **DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL I JUST WANT JAMES AND LILY TO STILL BE ALIVE!**

 **Responses to reviews:**

 **Biankies: Thanks! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Again, much thanks to my beta, FansieFace! Love ya!**

 **NON-CLIFFHANGER ALERT! (I usually write too many cliffhangers…so it is a big surprise when a chapter is actually resolved!)**

 **Please enjoy "** _ **The Leah Chronicles**_ **" Chapter 2!**

Upon arriving at the castle, the five entered the Great Hall. By this point, Lily and Severus had joined them. Of course James and Sirius were making fun of Severus, and he was snarking back at them, which meant that Lily was yelling at James and Sirius. It also meant that Remus, Peter, and Leah were smirking at each other and rolling their eyes. It wasn't technically even the first day back yet, and the three boys were going after each other already. Leah was holding back a loud laugh, and she could tell the others were as well.

As they entered, Leah was shoved from behind. She jerked around to see Montair glaring at her, followed by two of his friends, Adolph and Bennett. She growled at him, and kept moving. "Do you want us to hex him?" Peter asked. Leah scowled after the Slytherins, but ended up shaking her head. "No, it's all right. I'll sit on the opposite side of the tale of them, so they can't do anything to me. Plus, the returning Quidditch team members always sit together for at least the first meal, so I'll have them to help me out." The boys nodded, and then all four waved as Leah went over to the Ravenclaw table. The rest of her team was sitting at about the middle of the table, and Leah slid into a seat that Elliot Marxer and Joseph Merinor, two of the team's three Chasers, had left between them. "Hey, Leah-how was your train ride?" Elliot queried. Leah chuckled dryly. "Oh, not too bad…got to know some Gryffindor fifth-years, had a run-in with Montair…so, pretty much the usual."

"Which part is the usual one-meeting some Gryffindors, or having a run-in with Montair?"

"Unfortunately, the latter. And come on-you two know me and people don't mix!" The rest of her team chuckled. Joel Stienson, their Captain-who was a sixth-year and their Seeker-rolled his eyes, before leaning in a bit. "Listen up-our first practice is in a couple days. We play Gryffindor first, and we all know how tough they were last year. We're going to start getting ready early to be sure we're prepared to play them." His teammates nodded, looking serious. One of Ravenclaw's largest source of pride, besides being naturally intelligent or clever, was their Quidditch team. The team had been doing extremely well lately, and they always prepared well before every match. They hadn't won every game, but they gave their best in every game, which their House loved to watch. (And it didn't hurt that they usually ended up beating their school rivals, Hufflepuff.) As they ate, Leah looked up to see Montair giving her a dark scowl as he started to lumber to his feet. He was stopped, however, by Cooper and Carter Rodgers, Ravenclaw's Beaters. They were tall and muscular, and were very protective of their teammates. If they knew anyone who was bullying a teammate of theirs, they would hunt them down and teach them a lesson. They had found out about Montair beating Leah up last year by chancing upon the two in a dark third floor corridor. Montair wouldn't go anywhere near Leah when Cooper and Carter were around.

The rest of the night and morning passed smoothly, and soon it was Leah's study hall period. Professor Flitwick had pretty much forced her to take this hour and a half long break, since she was taking loads of challenging classes. Apparently, fifth year and seventh year was supposed to be the most challenging years, not fourth…but it seemed like Leah hadn't gotten that memo. She was currently working her way through a complex Arithmancy equation when a soft object hit her in the back of the neck. She quickly flipped around to see Sirius waving at her as he chucked another marshmallow at her. She groaned, rubbing her neck. "Sirius-I'm trying to study here! I have twelve different assignments to finish today!" As Leah turned back towards her homework, she felt four large bumps on the table.

"How do you already have so much homework? It's only been the first day of class!"

"Yes, James, and all of my classes gave me homework. Which means I have a _lot_ of homework."

"What classes are you taking?" Remus queried, sitting down and looking at her planner. Leah sighed. "Astronomy, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Muggle Studies, Transfiguration, Potions, Arithmancy, Study of Ancient Runes, Ancient Studies, Frog Choir, Magic Theory, Ghoul Studies, and Music. Not all in one day, of course, but…" She sighed. "I've already got a headache from my classes today…and it's only the first day of classes."

"Why are you taking so many classes?" Peter queried. "I can barely get through mine without help as it is."

"Because they're all things that interest me. Plus, I don't know what I want to do outside of school yet…and apparently I have an aptitude for all of them." She rolled her eyes. "I just need to get through today and get my homework done quickly. I can't exactly feel my brain at the moment."

The Marauders chuckled. James leaned loosely against Sirius on top of the table, while Peter sat across from them and Remus next to Leah. The five friends stayed there for a while, later joined by members of the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Quidditch teams, as well as Marlene McKinnon, Mary McDonald, and Lily Evans. James and Sirius usually skated through classes without having to do much homework, so they began to play Exploding Snap, getting ashes all over their friends.

"Excuse me, Mr. Potter, Mr. Black…but I believe the purpose of study hall is that students actually use the time to study-not for frivolous pursuits." Everyone turned around to see Professor McGonagall standing there with an eyebrow raised. Leah squeaked nervously and turned back to her homework. She was absolutely _terrified_ of Professor McGonagall, even though she highly enjoyed Transfiguration. McGonagall was a teacher who accepted no nonsense in her class, and Leah was always afraid that she was going to make a fool of herself in the class.

"Sorry, Professor…we just didn't want Leah here to go brain dead from all of her studying-and on the first day, too! I mean, she is a brilliant student, but even she needs to lighten up sometime!" James declared, reaching over and poking Leah in the side. Leah rolled her eyes and lightly shoved Sirius, knocking both of the older boys off of the table. McGonagall looked at Remus, who grinned and nodded. "Well…I suppose some well mannered frivolity is acceptable…so long as you do not cause one of my best students to forget all of her studies!" She smiled at Leah, who grinned shyly at her feet. "If she keeps working as hard as she already is, she could show the four of you a thing or two pretty soon." With those words, McGonagall walked off, leaving the children staring behind her. "You're lucky, Leah…she's never said anything like that to us. All she said to Cooper and I last class was, 'Finish your mushroom, Mr. Rodgers.'". Carter murmured. At the weird looks the others gave him, he rolled his eyes. "We were changing dinner plates into mushrooms…I hadn't finished mine yet, apparently."

"Yeah-because it looked like a plate on a stem!" Cooper chuckled. The others laughed at him, and Carter sighed, putting his face in his hands.

"At least yours didn't grow legs and run off under a table. They still can't find it…" Peter muttered, causing everyone to erupt into laughter again. James (who, along with Sirius, had finally climbed back onto the table) slapped Peter on the back. "Don't worry, Wormtail-I'm sure you'll get it eventually. We have all year, you know."

"Why do you call him that?" The Marauders looked over at Leah, who was staring quizzically at them. "Last night, on the train…you three called each other 'Prongs', 'Padfoot', and 'Moony'….and you just called him 'Wormtail'…why?" The four boys looked at each other nervously. Sure, there was a good reason behind their nicknames…but they didn't really know if they wanted _Leah_ to know. At least, not yet. Remus shook his head, which indicated to the other three that they would have to improvise.

"Well…" Sirius began, "…it's because of our Patronuses." Leah's eyes lit up (she still had not been able to conjure a full-fledged Patronus), and at her nodding, he continued. "We came up with little nicknames for each other once we saw what shape they took. For example, James's was a stag with HUGE antlers-"

"Not that big!"

"You're not the one telling the story! Anyways, it was a stag with…very large…antlers, and so we began to call James 'Prongs' because of his stag's large antlers." Leah chuckled quietly. "What about you three?"

"Well, Sirius is 'Padfoot' because his is a dog, and…dogs have pads…on their feet…it was James's idea, so…"

"What is this-'Gang Up on James Potter Day'?"

"Shush, James. To continue, Peter's nickname is 'Wormtail' because his Patronus is a rat, and mine is 'Moony' because my Patronus is a wolf." Remus finished. Leah nodded.

"Oh, I get it now…and that's super awesome! I wish I could conjure a Patronus…but it's a bit beyond me at the moment…at least getting the actual animal instead of the giant white blob is." The boys grinned at her. "You'll get it at some point, I know it. I'll bet you anything you want from Honeydukes that you'll get it by the end of this year." Sirius responded. Leah looked at him for a moment, surprised, but then smiled and shook his outstretched hand. "Bet accepted." she murmured. Then, she checked her watch. "Oh crap-I have to be in class in twenty minutes…and it's on the other side of the castle…" She grabbed her wand from where it was resting on the table, murmured, " _Scourgify!_ ", and all of her school supplies and books flew back into her bag. "I'll see you guys later!" she said, starting to head off. The Marauders waved. "See ya later, Newt!" Sirius called back.

Leah froze, immediately spinning back to face them. "What did you just call me?"

"Newt." Sirius said. "I figured it'd be a good nickname for you, since you're so concerned with learning and school…and since 'Owl' or 'Owley' wouldn't really sound as good…" He cut off as Leah darted over to give him a quick hug, beaming brightly as she did so. "Thanks, Sirius." she muttered softly, before starting out again for her classes. Sirius grinned, before cockily leaning back against James and eating a marshmallow. "You know, I think we're going to get through this O. W. L. year just fine."

"Speak for yourself…I'll be surprised if I pass anything!" Peter squeaked. Remus put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Peter-you'll get it eventually. Until then, you'll have to deal with these nitwits who don't have to study to do well."

"Because studying's boring!" James protested. "There's much more fun things to be doing, like goofing around, pranking people, pranking Snivillus, playing Quidditch-"

"Don't you mean _losing_ _at Quidditch_?" Joel teased. "You're playing Ravenclaw first, and you know that you're going to go down in flames."

It then came to the entire tables attention that-with the exception of Leah, who had just left-the entirety of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams were seated at one table. When asked later what the commotion was all about, all anyone would say was, "It was just some harmless Quidditch practice, Professor." To which the Professor-usually McGonagall-would respond, "First off, there is no possible way that you could practice Quidditch _indoors_. Secondly, this 'harmless' practice ended with six first-years getting hit in the eyes with ink pots. How in the world is that 'harmless'?"

 _ **A/N 2: Well…this was utter and total word vomit… I highly enjoyed it, though, and I hope you did as well. The next chapter should be up at some point…I have 3 different multi-chapters to work on, plus like 5 one-shots…augh. Why do I love writing so much? ;) Also, in case you were wondering…yes, I will be writing the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor Quidditch game. I'm just not sure who's going to win yet. Hopefully I'll figure that out soon!**_

 _ **I have to go for now (visiting my high school choir today-YAY!), so I'll talk to you all later!**_

 _ **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you soon!**_

 _ **God bless,**_

 _ **1monster2**_


	3. Time to Get Back at Snivillus

**A/N: Hello, all! Sorry I took so long to update this story…I got really busy recently with school, and everything just kind of exploded in my face. I'm going to hopefully write a lot more during the next 2 weeks (I go on Christmas break in 4 days! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!** **I WON'T HAVE TO WORK! Haha…), and I'll try to make it work during the week…oh boy…this should be fun.**

 **Anyways, I'm glad to finally get back to this chapter! As always, massive thanks to FansieFace for beta-ing this fic, and making sure that I don't sound stupid or anything!** **You rock, FansieFace!**

 **DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL I JUST LOVE WRITING THE MARAUDERS BECAUSE THEY ARE AWESOME AND I LOVE JAMES, SIRIUS, AND REMUS!**

 **Responses to reviews:**

 **Biankies: Yay-thank you so much! Hearing that my stories aren't boring is really nice, since that's one thing I'm always nervous about…** **Hopefully this update was soon enough…although you'll have to wait for the next chapter for the game…** **I asked my friend to pick "L" or "M" and she picked "M", so it'll be a Marauder-centric chapter…but I promise the game will be next chapter!** **Thanks! Yeah, I'm glad that I'm not taking that amount of classes either…I don't think I would be able to eat or sleep if I did…** **No problem-and I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Lanternfisch: Thanks! Hopefully you enjoy this chapter!**

 **SLIGHT REFERENCE ALERT! (not for the name of a character, but for an event that happens in one of the** _ **Harry Potter**_ **books (books, not movies). Just think about Binns, and you should get it!** **)**

 **Please enjoy "** _ **The Leah Chronicles**_ **" Chapter 3!**

"James, for the last time, _stop flicking pieces of parchment_ _through_ _Professor Binns._ "

"Oh, come on, Moony-it's not like he can feel it! And anyways, I don't need to pay attention-you know that!"

"You might not, but I do-especially since it's so close to the…you know…" James let out a small sigh, turning to Remus, who was sitting behind him. "Don't worry, mate-you'll be fine. You know Sirius and I'll take care of it for you. And _I_ know that you've already read the textbook chapter his lecture is talking about five hundred times."

"I know, but-"

" _Remus._ " James inserted a bit of "that tone" into his voice. "That tone", according to his friends, was gentle yet firm, laced with a quiet authority that effectively told his friends ' _shut up and listen to me, because what I'm saying is true_ ". It hadn't appeared until their second year, when he, Peter, and Sirius had discovered that Remus was a werewolf, and James had had to use it to stop the other boy from panicking and either trying to leave Hogwarts, or somehow hurting himself. "You will be _fine_ , all right? I know that Peter is right next to me taking notes, and somehow managing to do it with Sirius flicking pieces of parchment off of the back of his head. He'll get the notes from this class, and we'll do the ones next time-so don't worry about it, all right?" He held Remus's gaze until the other boy nodded, looking slightly sheepish as he did so. "Sorry, James, I just…"

"Don't worry about it, Moony-your friends have got you covered." James muttered, swatting his friend's knee affectionately, before moving to flick yet another piece of parchment. Before he could do so, however, a small wad shot over his head, shooting directly through one of Professor Binns's eyes. James could hardly contain his laughter-even more so as the ghost _actually stopped lecturing_ to look out at the class. " _Who threw that piece of parchment_?" he wheezed, looking stonily out at the class. The four Marauders were in the back of the class trying not to laugh as hard as they could, with Lily Evans, Severus Snape, and a bunch of Slytherins glaring back at them, and Marlene McKinnon and Mary McDonald chuckling. Thankfully, the bell rang a few seconds later, and the students were too occupied with putting away their things and leaving the classroom than they were in telling Professor Binns who had thrown a ball of parchment at him. The man _was_ a ghost, after all. Although, it was surprising that he had actually stopped a lecture to engage with his class. Remus was sure he had never seen that before, and it would probably never happen again.

"Nice shot, Moony!" Sirius barked, slapping the taller boy on the back. "I don't think Prongs could be that accurate if he tried!"

"That's because I wasn't trying to hit him in a specific area-just anywhere on his body! Moony here's the crack-shot!" James wheezed, trying to talk through his laughter, as well as a sharp jolt to his shoulder from Lily Evans bumping into him as she walked by. She glared at him, rolling her eyes, as she and her friends flounced off. James sighed through his teeth, and Remus put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, Prongs-I'm sure she'll come around eventually." A shrill squeaking from behind them had all three of the older boys turning to see Severus Snape, accompanied by a few other Slytherins, advancing menacingly on Peter. Somehow they had managed to corner him by the wall of the classroom while his friends weren't watching.

"Oi! Get away from him!" Sirius cried, shoving his way through the other boys. He could feel James and Remus doing the same. Once they got through, all three surrounded Peter, flourishing their wands threatingly at the Slytherins. "Get out of here now, Snivillus, and leave him alone. He's better than you could ever be."

"Oh, I don't think so, Potter. Look at him-he's too cowardly to even lift his wand, and can't even walk up a set of stairs without tripping! Are you sure that this great blubbering blob of fat is a good person?"

" _Petrificus Totalus!_ " Snape suddenly keeled over, as flat as a board. Looking through the space he had just occupied, the Marauders grinned, as Leah stood there, slightly smiling at them. "Need a hand?"

"Newt, you are an angel." Sirius said, ruffling her hair a little as the four reached her. She softly swatted his hand away, but was grinning profusely at the same time.

"How did you find us?" Peter asked. Leah smiled, swatting James's poking hand away this time. "I was walking by after my class, and heard that some Slytherins were going after 'those four trouble-causing Gryffindors'. There's only four Gryffindors who I know that cause trouble on a more than consistent business, so I figured I'd check it out." All five looked down the hall at a loud noise, and as they saw what was going on, Leah groaned. "Oh great…Montair. He's been…looking for me…the entire day." James and Sirius were about to curse the boy out, but Remus and Peter stepped on their feet to stop them. "Leah-do you have any more classes?" At the younger girl's nod, Remus continued. "Why don't you head off to that, and we'll deal with Montair. Maybe we can even get Severus at the same time." Leah smiled gratefully at them, hugging each boy warmly before darting off in the opposite direction. Once they knew for sure that she was gone, the four boys turned to each other. "So…anyone got an idea on how to get both of those slimy gits at once?" James asked. They all stood for a moment in contemplation before Sirius let out a dark laugh.

"I think I might have one…"

Later on in the day (about an hour or so later), the four Marauders were standing behind a castle wall, watching the two Slytherins approaching their dormitory. "Are you sure this is going to work?" Remus queried.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Come on, Moony, it's one of my best plans yet!"

"That's exactly why I don't think it's going to work, Padfoot."

"Why you!" James slapped his hands over both of their mouths before they could really get started. "Shush, both of you! If you keep going like this, Snivillus and Montair will hear you, and it won't work at all!" They turned back to see Montair gasp in excitement.

"Look!" In front of them lay a basket of cupcakes and muffins and any desserts that James and Sirius had been able to charm from the kitchen's house elves. It was a rather large basket, and both boys looked at it greedily. "Come on, come on…" James whispered. As he did so, he felt Peter transform, and then scurry off towards his position.

"Come on, Severus-they're not labeled, you know? We can just take them for ourselves!" Montair swooped towards the basket like an overgrown bird of prey, but Snape held back for a moment. "You go ahead, Montair…I just want to make sure that those despicable Gryffindors had nothing to do with them. I wouldn't put it past them." Montair shrugged, and took a big bite of one of the cupcakes. Snape never stopped staring at him, as if he expected the other boy to suddenly keel over or something. When nothing happened, he came over and joined the other boy. Sirius chuckled as they did so, rubbing his hands together. "Our evil plan is working." he muttered gleefully.

The two Slytherins continued on down the long hallway, eating and talking as they went, while the three Marauders sniggered at them from behind. It took about five minutes, but Montair and Severus finally came to a halt. "Um…why is there a muffin on the ground?" Snape queried. Montair shrugged again. "Who cares-free food, right?" And with that, he stepped up to grab the muffin. All of a sudden, he stopped in terror. A rat had just stuck its head out of the muffin, and then preceded to eat its way out. As it scuttled off, Montair and Snape looked at each other in horror. "Were there any chocolate cupcakes or muffins in that basket?"

"…yep…" The two boys suddenly gagged and ran off, leaving the four Marauders (Peter having rejoined his friends) to laugh hysterically at their retreating backs. "See, Moony, I told you it was going to work!" Sirius managed to force out over his laughter. Remus rolled his eyes, but couldn't keep from giggling himself. "Good job, Peter." he finally managed to wheeze out to the youngest boy, who was chuckling and looking quite full of himself. "Thanks!" he grinned. Once they all calmed down a bit, James smirked giddily.

"Mission accomplished."

By the time Remus had finished all of his homework-and then helped Peter finish his-it was around ten-thirty at night. The Marauders were holed up in a corner of the common room where they were close to the fire, but no one could hear what they were talking about. Which was a good thing, with the conversation that they were having.

"So, does anyone have detention this Wednesday?" Sirius queried. When James shot him a glare, he rolled his eyes. "Come on, mate-we're the four people who get the most detentions in the entire school. It's likely one of us has at least one detention this week. I know I have one on Friday-do any of you have one on Wednesday?" All three of his friends shook their heads. "Good-we wouldn't want Remus to have to deal with his 'furry little problem' by himself."

The three Marauders had managed-just this year-to become Animagi, so that they could accompany Remus on his monthly escapades as a werewolf, and be a source of protection-keeping civilians from attacking their friend, keeping him from attacking civilians, and keeping him from hurting himself. James, as a stag, was large enough to keep Remus in line and prevent him from going after anyone. Sirius, as a black dog, was around the same size as Lupin, and would also make sure his friend didn't go off on any…sprees…and Peter, a rat, was able to spy ahead and warn the others if anyone was approaching. Once he knew about his friends' new forms, Remus had reluctantly agreed to venture out of the Shrieking Shack with them, and they had slowly begun to explore more and more of the surrounding areas. Their system wasn't perfect, but it was the best that anyone had ever done for him, and Remus loved it.

"You know Severus is going to try to snoop around again. He knows that we go off campus and do something, but he's never figured it out." Peter replied. "We're probably going to run into him at some point."

"Well, we know how to deal with him, don't we-show him a rat and he runs for cover." James muttered, causing the others to laugh. Then, as they slowly stopped, he turned to Remus. "What about Leah? Do you think you'll ever want her to know?" The others looked at Lupin as he sat in concentration. "Well," he started after a while, "in a perfect world, I wouldn't want her to find out at all. Given how intelligent she is, though, she's probably going to suspect that something's up. Just…just keep her from finding out as long as you can. I don't know exactly how she'd take it." The others nodded, understanding completely. They, of course, trusted Remus with their lives, even in his werewolf form, but they didn't know who else they could actually trust with Remus's secret. If the wrong person (say, Severus Snape) found out, one thing could lead to another, and Remus could be kicked out of Hogwarts. Until they could guess how Leah would take the news, they wouldn't tell her.

"How're you feeling, Moony?"

"I'm honestly feeling extremely well, which usually means that the transformation is going to be particularly painful."

"Great-I love those ones."

"You love watching me painfully change into a wolf?"

"No-I'm being sarcastic, you idiot!" James and Peter simply smirked at each other as their friends bantered on.

Their lives may have been different than other peoples, but they loved their friends, and wouldn't change it for the world.

 _ **A/N 2: Welp, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I know I enjoyed writing it, and I feel like it was one of my best!**_ __ _ **I'll try to update at least once or twice over the next three weeks (Christmas break-yay!), and hopefully throughout the school year as well!**_ __

 _ **Well, I should probably go take a shower (since it's almost 11am Pacific time, and I just got out of bed), so I will talk to y'all later! (Also, to my Newsies readers-you will get a new chapter at some point. I just need to write the chapter…**_ __ _ **)**_

 _ **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all soon!**_

 _ **God bless,**_

 _ **1monster2**_


	4. Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw

**A/N: Hello, all! So, this update came sooner than the last one…that's mainly because I finished the 6** **th** **chapter of WJC yesterday, and I always work on this story after that one. Actually, check that…as of when I'm writing this (11:02pm on December 17** **th** **), my WJC chapter was posted 12 hours. Basically, I had a final from 8-10am this morning, but it was an online final, and it just had to be done by 10am. I got it done around 9:20, and then finished my newsies chapter before starting this one. I wanted to spend some special time on this chapter, since it contains a Quidditch game…which I've never written before-so I apologize if it's not that good!** **I tried to make it a bit more action-filled…so hopefully it worked out!** **Also, there are two Quidditch terms listed in this chapter-one is the "Hawkshead Attack Formation" and the other is the "Porskoff Ploy". Both are actual things in Quidditch, which I found in my "Quidditch Through the Ages" book. Also, IDK if the other members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team during the Marauders' fifth year have already been named…I just made people up. ;)**

 **DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL I JUST LOVE WRITING FICS ABOUT HIS FATHER BECAUSE I DON'T WANT HIS FATHER TO BE DEAD!**

 **Responses to reviews:**

 **Biankies: Thank you! Apparently another reviewer doesn't agree with you and FansieFace…but thank you sooooo much!** **This website-and all of you Newsies people who have reviewed all of my stories-has helped me to become much more confident in my writing and willing to do things that I never thought I would do (i.e: use a lawsuit as a main plot point ;) ) and helped me believe that people actually liked reading my stories.** **With the support of y'all, I don't think I can doubt myself!** **I hope you like this update!**

 **Berlin: Yeah, sorry about that…I do rush friendships sometimes (someone called me on it in my first Newsies story)…and…thanks.? There was a bit more dialogue, but it was because they couldn't really do much action in the settings they were in (History of Magic, playing a prank, and talking about Remus's lycanthropy)…it was mostly dialogue-driven stuff. And…um…thanks for that, I guess? I'm not sure what you mean by "a lack of anything distinguishing", but I guess I can use that to remind me to always remember to make my stuff different and unique, I guess…? I hope you like this update!**

 **As always, thanks to the amazing FansieFace for betaing this story and making sure that I actually sound like I know what I'm talking about… ;)**

 **REFERENCE ALERT! (to a BBC show I love,** _ **Sherlock**_ **…if you know that show, you'll recognize a couple of the Quidditch players. ;) )**

 **Please enjoy "** _ **The Leah Chronicles**_ **" Chapter 4!**

"Welcome, everyone, to the first Quidditch game of the season-Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor! It's a warm and sunny day-perfect weather for a game!" The entire stadium was pulsating with noise. The members of the two Houses playing, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, were cheering on their own teams, while Hufflepuff was cheering on both teams (while secretly hoping that Gryffindor would win, since Ravenclaw was their rival), and Slytherin was sulking in a dark corner, only briefly appearing to cheer for Ravenclaw before starting a spontaneous cheer for the Bludgers. "Here come the teams! For Gryffindor, Potter, Black, Arnet, Moriarty, Mycroft, Davis, and Anderson!" The Gryffindor team shot out of their tunnel, to thunderous applause from the red and gold-and boos from the green and silver corner. "And for Ravenclaw, Marxer, Merinor, Benson, Stienson, Rodgers, Rodgers, and Thompson!" The Ravenclaw corner erupted in cheers. It was widely accepted that this year's team was one of the best in their House's history, and they were hopeful that they could go all the way to the end and win the Quidditch Cup. First, though, they would have to get past Gryffindor.

"Now, here comes Madame Hooch, to begin the game!" The middle-aged witch strutted out to the center of the field, opening the ball box with a flick of her wand. Before she released the balls, she looked up at all of the players with a steely eyed glare-even the Keepers, who were already over at their respective hoops. "Now I want a clean and fair game-from all of you." After a few seconds of staring, she pressed a button, and the Bludgers and Snitch flew up and around the pitch. Then, Madam Hooch picked up the Quaffle and tossed it up into the air. "The Quaffle is released-and the game begins!"

After about a ten second scrum for the ball, Ravenclaw emerged with it. Elliot and Joseph chucked it back and forth to each other while heading down the pitch, narrowly avoiding a Bludger Sirius smacked at them. They threw it towards the left hoop, but Anderson blocked them. "Oh-very close there for Ravenclaw! Potter now with the Quaffle!"

James sped down the pitch with the two other Gryffindor Chasers-Moriarty and Mycroft-following along behind him. He made it to the hoops and lobbed it-but Leah swooped in and sent it flying with the back of her broom. She smirked at James as if to say, "You aren't scoring _anything_ on me." James rolled his eyes, before turning around and flying back. The three Ravenclaw Chasers were flying in the Hawkshead Attacking Pattern, flying directly for Gryffindor's goal. Before a Bludger hit by Arnet could reach them, Mara (Benson) threw it directly through the right hoop. "And Benson gets by the Gryffindor Keeper! Ten points to Ravenclaw!" The entire right side of the stands erupted in cheers as the players flashed by.

The game continued on for a while. After about thirty minutes, the score was 60 to 50, Ravenclaw. James had managed to score three goals and the other Gryffindor Chasers one each, while each Ravenclaw Chaser had two goals. Elliot was swooping down the field with the Quaffle when he dodged a Bludger flying straight for his head. He didn't keep an eye on it, though, and apparently Cooper and Carter didn't either, because the Bludger immediately reversed its trajectory and flew into his shoulder. Everyone in the stands could hear the dull thud and winced (except for the Slytherins, who were too busy cheering on the Bludger to care). Joel immediately pulled up and motioned for a timeout, which Madame Hooch granted, blowing her whistle. As soon as their feet touched the ground, Joel headed straight over to Elliot. "Are you all right, Elliot?"

"Yeah, I'm all right-just a bit sore. It hurt like the dickens, but I can still move it around and use it, so I don't need to head out." When Joel merely raised an eyebrow, Elliot sighed, and stretched his arm in three hundred and sixty degrees. His teammates could tell that it hurt, but he was adamant about returning to the pitch. Joel sighed. "All right-you can stay out, but watch out for those Bludgers, all right? And as soon as we're done, go see Madame Pomfrey." Elliot nodded, rolling his eyes, and he and the other Chasers mounted their brooms and flew back into the air. Leah began to as well, but she was just low enough to hear Joel say to Carter, "Keep an eye out for him, will you? I know you've got your eyes on everyone, but…"

"Don't worry, Joel-we'll make sure he's all right." Carter murmured, grinning at his Captain. Joel smiled in thanks before mounting his broom, and the four (Cooper, Carter, Leah, and Joel) motored back above the pitch. Leah sent a concerned glance Elliot's way as she arrived back at the hoops, but she knew he couldn't see her. As the game started again, a Bludger came shooting straight for her head, courtesy of Sirius. Leah spun her broom, just managing to avoid it, before having to loop to avoid it on its return journey. It started towards her again, but Cooper swooped in and smacked it away at the last moment. "Cutting it a little close there, don't you think?" Leah teased. Cooper briefly smirked at her as he started off. Then, he pointed upwards. "Incoming!" Leah looked up to see the Gryffindor Chaser Mycroft coming towards her with the Quaffle. "Thanks!" she called. As she watched Avery (Mycroft) fly closer, she suddenly noticed John (Moriarty) flying below, keeping pace with his fellow Chaser. "Oh crap…it's the Porskoff Ploy…" she muttered to herself. Out of all the plays she didn't like, this was one of the top two. The Keeper had to instinctively know when to move to bat the ball away, and sometimes the second chaser wouldn't chuck the ball until the last possible second. She could sense that one of her teammates was right behind her, but she couldn't tell who it was-but she knew it wasn't Joel. Joel was off who-knows-where trying to catch the Snitch. Finally, Mycroft dropped the Quaffle to Moriarty, who grabbed it and immediately chucked it upwards. Leah waited until what she thought was the right moment, and then swung her broom as hard as she could. The Quaffle hit the bristles, and then rocketed towards the other end of the pitch. A couple of fighting Chasers whizzed by the ball, giving it more forward momentum, until it-somehow-made it through the left hoop. Almost everyone in the stands looked down at Madame Hooch, who, after a few seconds, looked up at everyone and nodded. "And that ferocious hit by Ravenclaw Keeper Leah Thompson results in a goal! Ten points to Ravenclaw!" Leah and her teammates cheered, before getting back to work.

At this point, the game had gone on for about an hour, and people were starting to get tired. They were still watching the game and still into it, but they were getting physically tired. The players were feeling the same way-an hour is a long time to sit on a broom, after all. There had been a few penalty shots from people getting too chippy with one another, and some more goals. The score was now 220-180, Gryffindor. Leah had just blocked a shot when she saw-and felt-two bodies rush by her. She briefly turned to see Joel and the Gryffindor Seeker, Mason Davis, neck and neck in a race for the Snitch. Since the Quaffle was on the other side of the pitch, and there weren't any Bludgers around, she figured it would probably be all right to watch for a moment. As she watched, Joel slowly gained on Davis bit by bit, inching forwards slowly until-

"He's done it! Joel Stienson's caught the Snitch! One hundred and fifty points to Ravenclaw! Final score, 330-220, Ravenclaw! Ravenclaw wins!" The entire Ravenclaw section (and a good number of Hufflepuffs as well) rose to their feet as a swelling mass and erupted in cheers. The entire team rushed each other for a massive group hug around their hoops. "We did it-we beat Gryffindor!" Carter cried. The rest of his teammates let out a massive cheer, before slowly descending back down to the ground. As she touched down, Leah walked a little ways over to the Gryffindor team before James half-turned and noticed her. "Hey, Leah-good game!" he called, walking over and giving her a high-five. Leah grinned. "You too-I thought you guys had us for a while. Especially after you ran three Hawksheads in a row."  
"What can I say-that's our speciality!" Leah chuckled, which then turned into a grunt as Sirius slammed into her. "What-no 'well done' for me too?"

"I hadn't gotten to you yet, you great lump!" Leah teased, as Sirius let go and ruffled her hair a bit. "You have some seriously good aim-I almost got smacked in the face like five times! Was it your Bludger that hit Elliot?"

"He was the one whose shoulder that got whacked, yeah? Yeah, I think that was mine…is he all right?"

"Yes, he's all right-just a bit sore. He's going to check in with Madame Pomfrey once he gets changed…and I should probably head over there and see how he is. Knowing him he'll be super stoic and refusing to admit that he feels any pain whatsoever until Joel threatens to punch him wherever his injury is."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah-apparently he doesn't like to show weakness in front of other people…and stop smirking, Sirius." She rolled her eyes at the two boys' antics, before giving them an apologetic glance. "I've got to go get cleaned up, but I'll see you later!" With that, she remounted her broom and flew over to the Ravenclaw locker room, nearly crashing into Joseph and Cooper as she did so.

"Yeesh, Leah…you know the match is over, right? And that we're on your team?"

"Of course I do, Joseph…is Elliot already up there?" Cooper nodded, concern clearly showing in his eyes. "Yeah, he is-apparently the idiot got a dislocated shoulder from playing with that whack…and just so happened to slip on a bit of wet stair going up to the hospital wing…and cracked his shoulder joint. _While it was dislocated._ " Leah groaned, slapping her face with her hand. "Geez…when Elliot does something, he really goes all out, doesn't he." Her two teammates chuckled and nodded. "That he does. Joel told us to tell you to head up whenever you're done here. Apparently we're having a mini team party in the hospital wing." Leah grinned, already getting ready to change and clean up a bit. "Let Joel know I'll be up in about ten minutes…and tell Elliot that he's an idiot. I mean, I'll tell him myself when I get there, but…"

"Don't worry-we'll tell him probably about fifty times over the course of today." Joseph said, smirking at Leah before heading out. Leah sighed. _"Today went pretty well."_ she thought to herself. _"I managed to stop a bunch of goals-and actually score one, and we ended up winning our first game. Sure, Elliot was an idiot again, but that's nothing new…but we won a game. Against_ _ **Gryffindor**_ _. We're one step closer to the Quidditch World Cup._

 _Now I just have to survive classes next week…_

 _Oh good Lord."_

 _ **A/N 2: Well…this chapter actually worked out really well!**_ __ _ **Writing the Quidditch game was really fun…especially when I got to do research with all of my HP books and Wikias…**_ __ _ **I also enjoyed writing about how the Slytherins were cheering for the Bludgers. I mean, they despise Gryffindor with a burning passion, but they also dislike Ravenclaw, so I figured they'd just want to see both teams to get pulverized. The only time I think they actually care is when their team is playing. ;) Also, I figured (at least for Gryffindor) that I should explain which player plays which position, so that you're not all confused. (And for anyone who's curious as to why I put Sirius as a Beater, it keeps appearing on fanfictions that I read, and I really liked it, so I decided that I would do it as well.)**_

 _ **Here's the teams:**_

 _ **Gryffindor:**_

 _ **James Potter: Chaser**_

 _ **Avery Mycroft: Chaser**_

 _ **John Moriarty: Chaser**_

 _ **Sirius Black: Beater**_

 _ **Travis Arnet: Beater**_

 _ **Mason Davis: Seeker**_

 _ **Sean Anderson: Keeper (Captain)**_

 _ **Ravenclaw:**_

 _ **Elliot Marxer: Chaser**_

 _ **Joseph Merinor: Chaser**_

 _ **Mara Benson: Chaser**_

 _ **Cooper Rodgers: Beater**_

 _ **Carter Rodgers: Beater**_

 _ **Joel Steinson: Seeker (Captain)**_

 _ **Leah Thompson: Keeper**_

 _ **The next time I post, I will be on Christmas break (YAY!), and I'll have a nice present for y'all-a nice big cliffhanger! (Let's just say that someone finds out about Remus's "furry little problem" who isn't supposed to…and things go very wrong because of it…) Haha…hopefully I'll get a few more chapters out before I go back to school!**_ __

 _ **I should probably go, since I have a final at 8am tomorrow…and I'm getting up at 6am…and it's 20 minutes to 12am. Oi…haha…**_

 _ **Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all soon!**_

 _ **God bless,**_

 _ **1monster2**_


	5. The First Full Moon

**A/N: Hello, all! Sorry this chapter took so long…I was working on Chapter 7 of WJC for a while, and so I'm glad to get back to it. Especially since I just left that story on a huge cliffhanger. ;) Not a big surprise, if you've read any of my stories…Anyways, I'm hopeful to get a couple more chapters out this week…I'm still on break until the 9** **th** **, so I should hopefully be able to get some stuff done. And also…normally this doesn't happen, since it doesn't get cold enough/we're too low elevation/whatever, but I woke up this morning…AND IT SNOWED! I haven't seen actual snow since…probably the "blizzard" of 2008 that canceled school for a week or so. I didn't get to go out in it today, but I might tomorrow. SNOW! ;)**

 **Anyways, DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL I JUST LOVE THE MARAUDERS SO FLIPPING MUCH!**

 **Responses to reviews:**

 **Biankies: Haha…apparently they actually liked the last chapter, so they're all right now… ;) But thanks a lot anyways! Haha, yeah, I am seriously addicted to hurting them…and yeah, poor Elliot. I had a hard time picking who I was going to smack with a Bludger, and Elliot was the first one I thought of.** **I hope you like this chapter!**

 **GunsFallSilent: Yep! I was going to do Sherlock and Mycroft, but I figured that might be a bit obvious…and I had just watched some Sherlock the day before and wanted to punch him, so… ;) I hope you like this chapter!**

 **Berlin: All right-I'll try it! I've gotten that comment before for a different story, but I keep rushing friendships because I either don't want to write a ton of dialogue…or because I have a really hard time making friends (since I have social anxiety myself) and don't really do it often, so I don't really know how people become friends with each other.** **I'll keep it in mind, though, and keep working at it!** **Yay-I try to balance everything out, but sometimes that doesn't work very well. I've read stories that are either only dialogue or only action and really don't like them, so I try to avoid it as much as possible…but yay.** **Yay-I'm glad you like it! Yeah, I'm going to try to put in mental oddness when it fits the story, since I have the same as Leah, and would know how she would react in certain circumstances. Thanks-I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **CLIFFHANGER ALERT!**

 **WARNING** **: The following chapter contains an argument between the Marauders and a fellow Gryffindor who uses some very offensive words and jokes about people with mental disorders. I didn't originally plan to put it in there at first, but I figured that not everyone would be very fond of Leah even if they weren't a Slytherin, and so I left it in. I know that the joke is one that people (including myself) consider highly offensive to people like myself, but I wanted to include it to show how people with MDs can often be treated. If it offends you, please understand that it offends me as well, and the only reason that I put it in was for characterization and realistic atmosphere. I do not support the kind of thinking the joke suggests.**

 **As always, thanks to my amazing beta FansieFace, who always brightens my day when I get to talk to her!**

 **I hope you enjoy "** _ **The Leah Chronicles**_ **" Chapter 5!**

The next morning, the victory over Gryffindor was still the talk of the Ravenclaw common room. The entire house was in awe of their team, and respected and loved them even more than usual. The rest of the team just shrugged it off, used to the brief celebrity status their win would bring. Leah, on the other hand, was freaked out. Normally, people just kind of acknowledged that she was there, and only her friends really talked to her. The new attitude that people were showing towards her freaked her out, and so she hardly talked to anyone. When she saw someone approaching that she didn't know she could trust, she would very quickly walk in the opposite direction. Her teammates teased her about it, but Leah had a real hard time dealing with it. "How can you play Quidditch or do choir, then, with everybody watching you?" Joseph Merinor questioned. Leah grinned softly. "Because I can't specifically see people's eyeballs…I know they're there, but I can't see them looking at me, which makes it easier. Also, I'm not the only person who's out there. I'm not the main focus of the event, which somehow makes it easier. And it's something we've practiced over and over, so I know what we're doing and am confident in my own abilities to do what we've practiced. I know they're not staring at me _all_ the time…they're mostly watching you three getting smacked by Bludgers."

"Hey-we don't get hit that much!"

"Need I remind you of the aftermath of our game against Slytherin last year, where all three of you Chasers plus Cooper and Joel ended up in the hospital wing? For two weeks? In May?"

"Okay, okay…fair enough."

By the time she arrived at breakfast, she was hardly making eye contact with anyone, quickly moving to sit in her seat before anyone else tried to talk to her. She had an hour before her next class, so she planned to eat breakfast swiftly and leave before anyone could talk to her. It was what she called her "escape route". While she was eating, owls began to fly overhead. Leah didn't expect to get anything, so she didn't look up. She was soon startled by an envelope falling on top of her bacon. "What the heck…who would be writing me?" she queried. When she turned it over and looked at the sender, she grinned. "Oh-that's who it is." She ate the rest of her breakfast as quickly as she could after reading the letter, and then turned around. She finally located Sirius and Remus sitting further up at the Gryffindor table. She grabbed her things and slowly walked over towards them. As she did so, she realized that more than a few Gryffindors were staring at her, some with curiosity, and some with barely-disguised hostility. Leah gulped, and then nervously pulled on Sirius's sleeve. Right as he turned around, one of the nearby Gryffindors chuckled abrasively at her. "What do you want, little Ravenclaw? Fly back to your nest-you're not welcome here."

"Oh shut up, Fox, and leave her alone. She's a friend of ours." Remus replied, upon seeing who it was behind them. The aforementioned Fox rolled his eyes, and then fixed them with a glare. "Why are you friends with her, anyways? Everybody knows that she's a retarded idiot who doesn't have a real place at Hogwarts. It's a wonder that she's made it this far!" Both Sirius and Remus stood up and fixed sharp, angry glares at the sixth year. Leah was barely able to hold in the tears that were suddenly welling up in her eyes, and she started to try to run away from the confrontation. Sirius grabbed her arm without even looking back to try to stop her, but Leah managed to yank her arm out of his grasp-

Only to turn and immediately run into someone's body. She backed up a little and looked up to see James looking at her concernedly. Peter was right behind him. "Are you all right, Newt?" the older boy asked quietly. Leah didn't respond, simply gulping back a huge sob and again trying to run out of the Great Hall. James easily caught her, however, holding her back, while Peter remained behind James in case Leah managed to break away and started running. She tried to break out of James's grip, but he was much taller and stronger than her, and was able to hold her in place without much effort. James looked up at Sirius, Remus, and Fox, who were still standing and glaring at each other. "So…someone want to tell me what's going on here?" he asked, his voice harsh and cold. The other Marauders recognized that tone. It only came out when someone had hurt one of his friends, and James was trying to keep his anger in check before he snapped and punched someone in the face. Fox snorted. "I don't get why that retarded cretin is so important to the four of you. She's just a stupid Ravenclaw who's not capable of being a normal human being. She's one of those…" here he grinned nastily at her, "…those vegetables. And you know the hardest part of a vegetable to eat? _The wheelchair_." Fox started laughing, and a couple of his friends did as well. Leah squeaked and shuddered in James's grip, tears streaming down her face. She could feel her knees starting to buckle a little, and James pulled her into a hug, his arm pretty much the only thing keeping her upright.

"I'm only going to say this once, so you better shut up and listen, you arrogant toerag." Sirius growled. "Leah is a better person than you will ever be. Yes, she does have some mental oddities, but that does not make her unintelligent, or a retard, or anything of the sort. It just makes her the unique person that she is. And look at us-all four of us are odd in our own way. You wouldn't call one of us a vegetable, would you? _So don't call Leah one, or I swear I will rip your arms off and feed them to a hippogriff._ " Fox looked like he was going to make some sort of snarky remark, but the icy stares that all four Marauders were giving him-as well as Sirius's completely serious remark-caused him to gulp nervously, before getting up and leaving quickly with his friends. As soon as they were gone, the Marauders all turned to Leah, who was still crying a bit. Remus rubbed her back. "Hey, Leah, it's okay-they're gone now. I'm sorry that guy was such an imbecile, but he and his half-witted friends left…you're all right." Leah slowly settled down, letting out one final deep breath before nodding and letting go of James. "…Thanks for that…I just…" she murmured, not able to find the words. The Marauders smiled at her. "It's all right, Leah-Fox had no right to call you that at all. He never had a lot of brains in the first place."

"…I thought Ravenclaws were the only ones with brains." Leah joked. It wasn't a very good joke, but her friends laughed anyways. Then, Peter pointed down at her hand. "Leah-what's that?" Leah looked down at her hand, and then gasped, suddenly realizing why she had come over in the first place. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that…it's why I came over in the first place! I got a letter from my older brother, and I thought you guys might like to see it."

"Your brother who plays professional Quidditch for the United States?" James queried. Leah nodded. "Yeah. Apparently my younger sisters wrote him about our game against Gryffindor, and he wrote me about it."

"Well, what does it say?"

"All right-I'll read it to you." Leah good-naturedly slapped Sirius's hand away from where he was trying to swipe her letter. She took a breath, and then read,

" _Dear Leah,_

 _Hello, little sister. I am writing to you to congratulate you on your most recent win against Gryffindor. Susan and Helen told me everything about it, and I am extremely proud of how you and your team played. Yes, I know this is coming from a Gryffindor, which is the house you just beat, but I_ _ **am**_ _a professional Quidditch player now, which has to count for something. I wish I could have seen the game…or at least the Slytherins cheering on the Bludger. I mean, I can understand them not wanting Gryffindor to win, but…cheering for a Bludger? Seriously? Those idiots haven't changed since I was there._

 _Nothing much has happened here. We've been playing some games, but are currently on a two-day break. I'm taking some time to do maintenance on my broom and rest up a bit. We played the Sweetwater All-Stars yesterday, and they play extremely physically. By the time the game was done, one of our Chasers had a concussion, and the rest of us had a lot of assorted bruises. Like you like to say, I'm now feeling muscles in places I didn't know I had muscles. I heard that Elliot got hit by a Bludger…if I'm remembering Elliot correctly, I'm sure he went and injured himself even worse after the game…that man is incredibly graceful in the air, but the clumsiest and most injury prone man I have ever met on the ground. Please tell him-from me-to avoid hurting himself any further…you do need three Chasers to play Quidditch, not two._

 _I also understand that you've become friends with some certain Gryffindor fifth-years. I remember hearing a lot about them, especially since they were in my House, and they were always pulling some sort of prank on other Gryffindors. Like the time they hung up all of the first years' underwear on a clothesline outside Gryffindor Tower. I'm pretty they got detention for two weeks for that…but then they were in detention more times than out of it, so I don't exactly recall the particulars. I'm glad that you are making friends outside of your own House, and I hope that it works out for you. Please give my regards to those four (and of course, by 'those four', I mean James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew), and invite them to visit whenever-if ever-they come to America._

 _I miss you, little sister. Tell Susan and Helen hello for me, and tell Mum and Dad that I love them, and will write them again when I get the chance. I love you!_

 _Your brother always,_

 _Adri"_

She finished reading and sighed, unconsciously holding the letter to her chest. The four boys grinned at each other. "Your brother seems amazing, Newt." Peter murmured. Leah grinned and nodded. "Yeah-Adri's fantastic. I miss him a lot, but he does visit every once in a while."

"If I may ask, what kind of name is Adri? I've never heard it before."

"Oh, that's just a nickname. His full name is Adrian, but we all call him Adri." Leah looked down at her watch. "Oh crap-I've got to go get ready for Arithmancy. If I forget something again for that class, Professor Vector is going to kill me." She smiled, and moved to hug each boy. She then waved, and ran off. Once she was out of sight, Sirius turned to the others. "Can we please go and hex that stupid Fox Falconwolf into next week?" Peter and James were grinning, but then all heads swung towards Remus. He was usually the one who tried to stop them from pulling pranks or getting in trouble. However, he just smirked at the others. "Not in public." he muttered. The others understood him loud and clear. They couldn't hex him in public, because they would get in serious trouble.

In private, however, Fox and his friends were fair game.

Today was going to be a great day.

Today was not a great day.

It was Wednesday, the first full moon of the school year. Leading up to that day, Remus was feeling perfectly fine. Normally, he would've started feeling sick around Sunday, but somehow he felt better than normal. However, he knew that that just meant that he was going to have a worse transformation than normal, and that he would start feeling sick sometime during that day. During their Transfiguration class, Remus began to feel a slight churning in his stomach, followed by the beginning of a headache. He groaned quietly, lowering his head into his hands. Of all the days to be a full moon, it had to be this day. He tried to pay attention to Professor McGonagall, but could barely track what she was saying, much less understand it. And it was only going to get worse from there.

Someone on his right nudged him. "Oi, Remus-you all right? You haven't fallen asleep, have you?" Remus didn't move, simply letting out a low growl directed straight at Sirius. "Shut up, Padfoot, before I punch you in the jaw."

"Oh, come on, Moony, you know you couldn't hurt a fly if you tried."

"Oh really? Give me a few hours and we'll test that theory."

"What, you afraid to do it now?" Sirius's teasing had two effects. One, it somehow helped Remus feel a bit better, as it gave him somewhere and someone to focus the growing anger he was now feeling. And two, it made him really, really, _really want to smack Sirius in the face so help me God_ -

"Moony! Stop it!" Remus looked up. Apparently, though he didn't realize it, he had raised a hand and had been moving it to smack Sirius in the face. James was holding his hand in an iron grip, preventing it from moving. He held Remus's gaze until he knew his friend had relaxed a little, and then released his hand. Almost immediately, Remus slumped over his desk, his head resting on his crossed arms. "I hate this." he muttered. "I'm not going to understand anything we learn in class the next few days, and I'll be holed up in the hospital wing for a couple days…I hate this."

James rubbed his back sympathetically. "Don't worry about it, mate." he muttered softly. "You know that we'll get notes for all of the classes that you miss, and that we'll be _partying_ in the hospital wing tomorrow. Plus, aren't the transformations getting a bit better now that we're…helping?" Remus contemplated that for a second, before nodding shortly, leaning in a bit to James's touch. "Yeah, they are…it's nice having you three around. Gives me a distraction…and stops me from hurting myself." James's hand briefly clenched on his back for a moment, before continuing its motion. "You see? You'll be all right, Moony. I promise." Remus didn't _feel_ all right, but he knew that his friend meant well, so he nodded, and gave James a weak smile. The taller boy grinned back at him, before holding up a finger. He then turned towards Sirius with his wand out and flicked it a bit, murmuring something under his breath. As Remus watched, Sirius's extra quill began floating in the air, until it reached around his cheek. It then began to fly forwards and poke him, before retreating and then doing it again. Sirius annoyedly swatted at it and growled at James, while James and Remus were struggling to contain their laughter. Thankfully, one of the other students in the class tapped his wand instead of flicking it (they were working on the actual spell at this point), and ended up summoning twelve books, Professor McGonagall's large handbag (which she used to carry her notes/student papers), a brick, and three rather huge squirrels all on top of him and his partner. The whole class burst out in laughter, which allowed James and Remus to burst out laughing and not get stared at strangely by the entire class. As they did so, James looked up at Professor McGonagall (who had seen what was going on), who gave him a nod and a slight smile. She knew that they knew about Remus being a werewolf, and that they took care of him whenever it was a full moon. They did all the time, of course, but especially during a full moon. She knew that without his friends, Remus would be in a much worse spot than he was.

He might not even still be at Hogwarts.

By the end of the day, Remus was _not_ doing well. He had snapped at nearly everyone who had tried to talk to him-including his friends-and was massively irritable and annoyed. He always felt this way on a full moon, and as much as he hated it, he couldn't help it. His friends formed a kind of shield around him, however, and didn't let him really go after anyone, even if he wanted to. They also let him insult the heck out of them without so much as a harsh word in return. It felt good to know that they cared so much for him, even though he was so irritated and angry he could hardly see straight.

At around eight o' clock, Remus felt the familiar urgings and tightenings starting to appear. He looked up at Sirius, whose gray eyes were watching him from the corner of the room. He nodded at the older boy, who nodded back, before kicking James and Peter in response. The four boys slowly stood, trying not to draw attention to themselves. Once they got out of Gryffindor Tower, they made their way down to the hospital wing, eventually having to guide Remus when the pain got too intense. Eventually, they arrived at the hospital wing, and Madame Pomfrey took one look at him before shoving them down the tunnel. "Get him down there and do whatever it is you do-quick." The professors who knew about Remus's "furry little problem" also knew that the other three Marauders did …something to help him. Only Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall-and Madame Pomfrey-had any idea about the three becoming Animagi, and had agreed to keep their secret, as it was in the process of keeping another and more dangerous secret. The severity of their decision was highly impressed upon them, but as they had proved time and time again, there was nothing they wouldn't do for their friend.

As they hurried over towards the Whomping Willow, James thought that he felt someone watching them. He looked around, trying to see if there was anyone around. He didn't see anyone, however, so he kept going. If he had looked harder, however, he would have seen a pair of eyes googling at him from behind a bush. Once they had completely entered the passageway, the bearer of the eyes stepped into the light.

"Now where are they off to?" Montair queried.

"Where are they going?"

 _ **A/N 2: Welp…this chapter is done! Yay!**_ __ _ **I am happy with how this chapter turned out…the whole argument with Fox was total word vomit and just kind of thrown in there, but I felt like it fit the story (since I figured that people from each House wouldn't like Leah, not just Slytherins), and it worked well. This chapter was interesting because basically everything that Leah talks about or has happen to her is something that has happened to me in the past. I haven't had that particular joke told to me, but I've had people treating me like that before. Also, Leah's justification for being able to do Quidditch and choir is my justification for feeling comfortable in choir and theatre-I've done it for a long time, I can't actually see the whites of people's eyes, which makes it a bit easier, we practice so much that I could do whatever it is I'm doing in my sleep, and I'm not the only person on stage. There's usually other people around me, so I'm not being watched all the time. I'm also the same as Leah when people start randomly being nice to me-I freak out and go hide in my "safe corner" with either people from my inner "safety net", or just by myself. The term "escape route" is something I came up with last year during my senior year of high school. I had a hard time with lunch at school (because of many different factors), and so I would find a table that was between half and completely empty, eat my lunch as quickly as I could, and then either escape to math or choir. The only times I didn't "escape" were on the Day 1s when my friend Josh was there, as I was able to feel completely comfortable around him (which I still do today). I have had someone treat me like Fox did to Leah in the past, but I also had a friend stand up for me, like the Marauders did for her. It definitely helps to know that someone's in your corner.**_

 _ **Also, I didn't intend this at first, but because I chose the name "Fox" for the stupid idiot Gryffindor…I made him a reference to the Star Fox series, taking the names of "Fox", "Falco", and "Wolf", and kind of sticking them together. Fox was originally named for a kid in my 4**_ _ **th**_ _ **grade class with the same name who had a British accent.**_

 _ **Just a quick question, since I figure someone reading this story will know…did J.K. Rowling ever mention what year it was that Snape found out that Lupin was a werewolf? I'm trying to figure out if he knows or not, because it'll somehow factor in with the bit of Montair finding out. I couldn't remember if she made specific mention or not, I just know that she made mention of the story where Sirius sends Snape down the Whomping Willow tunnel. If you know, please help me out!**_ __ _ **Also, I don't remember if Dumbledore actually knew that the three Marauders were Animagi…but for the purpose of this story, and how his character is portrayed in the books, I've chosen to believe that he has his suspicions and ideas about it, and is keeping quiet and letting it play out to protect Remus.**_

 _ **Well, that's it for now…it's now about 12:30am out here, and I started this around 4pm… ;) Granted, we did watch a Blazer game and play Mario Kart/Nintendo Land, so this took me a bit longer to write…haha.**_ __ _ **I'll be coming out with another WJC chapter next, and then another chapter for this story after that!**_

 _ **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you soon!**_

 _ **God bless,**_

 _ **1monster2**_


	6. Party Time, Marauder Style

**A/N: Hello, all! I'm sorry I haven't updated for a bit…I just started spring semester here at school, and am already in shock of how much reading I have to do (like, textbook reading). I've also been working on Chapter 10 of this story…which I swear makes sense. I always write stories chronologically, starting with Chapter 1 and going to wherever. However, I decided to work on Chapter 10 because-not only is it the end of the story-but it's a huge and pivotal chapter, and I wanted to make sure I got it right. It has now eclipsed whatever my plans were, and is currently (as of 4:33pm PST 1/14/2016) 14 pages long, and almost 8k words. I promise when you read it, it will be stupendous. I've also been working on my next WJC chapter, which should be coming out soon-ish…when I can find time to write. We'll see when that is. I'm also on a bit of an HP kick at the moment, so this story is flowing from my brain easier. Also, I know that this chapter won't come out until days after the fact, but as of right now, I wanted to dedicate this chapter to Alan Rickman, the man behind the incredible portrayal of Professor Severus Snape, who passed away this morning. (It still doesn't seem real! WHY?) I may have wanted to punch his character in the face several times, but Alan brought him to life so perfectly that, in my eyes, even if they make a remake thousands of years later, he** _ **is**_ **Severus Snape. So, this chapter is in dedication to him, and everything he did for the Harry Potter community. "Always."**

 **As always, thanks to my incredible beta FansieFace! Much love to you, Hulu, and Ahoy!**

 **Responses to reviews:**

 **Biankies: Haha… I can totally see that-and I totally will! Haha…thank you so much! I can't explain how much that means to me…but seriously, it means a lot.** **Just…yeah. It means a lot. 3** **Haha…that's why I've been trying to drink tea when I write fanfictions…or be chewing gum…somehow that helps me not be so violent…I think.** **I'm trying to come up with a story where no one gets very hurt…just a bonding story…I've got an idea of one, but it hasn't morphed into a coherent idea yet.** **I will, I promise, at least in the future…in WJC, though…not so much…** **(Haha, I started writing this before I wrote** _ **I Ain't Sick**_ **…now I have! ;) ) Thanks-and I'm glad that things turned out all right for you too! No, they definitely don't! (AUGH WHY PEOPLE?) You're welcome…and I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **SLIGHT WHUMPAGE WARNING!**

 **Please enjoy "** _ **The Leah Chronicles**_ **" Chapter 6!**

"Come on, Moony. Don't make us drag you all the way up to the hospital wing."

"…That's exactly what we _are_ doing, Padfoot."

"Right, then...well, he could give us some help, here!"

"…I'm sure he would if he could, but he _is_ the one who spent the entire night as a _werewolf_. You know very well that after the night is over, he's almost immediately out-even if we're with him." Sirius sighed, straightening up a little, trying not to smack Remus's head on the tunnel's ceiling as he did so. "I know that, and you know that I know…I just wish it didn't have to be like this, Prongs. Why can't they just invent something that would cure lycanthropy already?" James shrugged, yawning as he did so. The full moons always hit Remus the hardest, as he was the one who turned into a werewolf every single one of them, but James, Sirius, and Peter felt it too-and this was only their fifth full moon together. They had just recently-as of three months ago-finished everything they needed to in order to become Animagi. They were currently unregistered, however, as to register with the Ministry would bring questions as to _why_ three fifth-years would want-or need-to become Animaguses. And if those questions did come, Sirius and James, knowing their friends, figured that Peter would eventually break down and tell them, due to the stress of the situation, and Remus would just flat out admit that he was a werewolf in order to protect his friends, not caring if he were expelled…or worse. It was better for now if no one knew…although all of the Marauders were pretty sure that Dumbledore and McGonagall at least had suspicions. James was just glad that they were allowed to help Remus get down and back to the Shrieking Shack, since they knew about his "furry little problem". The only others, besides the professors, were Severus Snape (because of a stupid stunt that Sirius had pulled that they _never talked about again so help me God_ ), and Lily Evans. Ever since she had found out-both what happened to Remus, and what the other three did for him-she was much nicer and kinder to the Marauders (specifically the ones who weren't Remus, since she was already friends with him), and would actually carry on a conversation with James.

Finally, they made their way out of the tunnel and into the hospital wing. Peter was already there with Madame Pomfrey. The two older boys usually sent him on ahead to let the nurse know that they were coming. He had run all the way up the tunnel in his rat form, before transforming right before he went in. James and Sirius helped Remus up the tunnel, as they were taller than Remus (by a little bit, maybe five inches or so), and a good bit stronger than their friend. He may turn into a werewolf every full moon, but in his normal human form, he wasn't as strong as them-especially since both Sirius and James were Quidditch players, and so were exceptionally strong and muscular. Peter was weaker and shorter than all of them. Leah was taller than Peter but shorter than Remus, and was as strong as at least James (since she was also a Quidditch player). However, Remus was never very helpful on these nights, as he usually fell unconscious at some point right after they returned to the Shrieking Shack.

"Here, lay him down on this bed." Madame Pomfrey said, pointing out a nearby bed. The two Marauders carefully laid Remus down on the bed, while the nurse bustled around, gathering a few potions. Suddenly Remus groaned, trying to roll over. James, Sirius, and Peter all held him down, preventing him from moving. "Easy, Moony…we're in the hospital wing. You have to stay still, or it'll take longer for you to heal." Peter murmured. The older boy sighed, but slowly ceased his attempts to move. "I hate this…" he sighed. Sirius patted him on the shoulder, grinning as his friend weakly tried to slap him. "We know…but at least it's a Saturday, and there's no classes…which means we get to party in here all day long!"

"We have homework, though…"

"We can do it later, Moony. For now, our focus is on you." James replied. Remus rolled his eyes, but grinned up at them. Madame Pomfrey chose that time to come over, three potions in tow. "Here you go, Remus…" she said, placing the potions on the table next to him. The boy groaned, but nodded, reluctantly downing all three potions. He groaned as he felt them take effect, slumping back into the pillows. James winked at the other two boys. "All right, Remus…now it's time for us to party!"

Leah walked out of the Quidditch arena, having just gotten out of practice. She was rather proud of herself, as she had managed to block almost every shot her teammates took. The only ones she missed were particularly challenging ones that Mara and Joseph had invented. Leah was also glad that Joel had decided to practice without Bludgers, due to Elliot's still-sore shoulder. They did add in the black balls at the end, but they were at half-speed, meaning that they were easier to get away from, and wouldn't pack as hard of a punch. Leah was now going to find her sisters. She knew that her sisters, Susan and Helen, would have just gotten out of Gobstones Club, and so she was heading out to find them and say hello. Her sisters had more friends than she did, but they always took time to talk with their older sister, which Leah appreciated.

She had just reached the courtyard when she heard a large amount of laughter. She looked over to see what was so funny, and let out a dark growl. Her sisters were standing there, slowly backing away from three older Hufflepuffs, who Leah immediately recognized. "I'm surprised that you two are _proud_ of your disgrace of a sister…I wouldn't want to be anywhere near her."

"Hey-we love our sister, and we'll hex anyone who says anything different!" Helen responded, glaring directly at the bullies. The older girls scoffed, rolling their eyes.

"Right…she's just as bad at being an actual human being as you two are at Quidditch. You couldn't hit anything with a Bludger at point-blank range!"

This made Leah _very_ upset. She was used to people making fun of her, and she accepted it as a part of life. However, she wouldn't let anyone make fun of her sisters. Not by a long shot.

" _Silencio!_ " The three girls tried to speak, but suddenly realized that they couldn't. Everyone turned to see Leah coming towards them, looking particularly murderous. "Leave my sisters alone. If you have a problem with me, you come talk to me. You _do not_ go after them. If I ever see you bullying them again, I will do worse than shut you up. And in case you even think of trying to bully me…keep in mind that I know where you live." The three Hufflepuffs glared at her, but she simply stared straight back at them until they gave up and walked away. Leah then turned towards her sisters. "Are you all right?" she queried. Both Susan and Helen nodded. "Yeah, we're all right. Their bark is worse than their bite these days." Leah let out a relieved breath. "Leah…are you all right? I know there's a lot of people making fun of you these days…" Susan asked. Leah shrugged her shoulders, a knowing smirk on her face-although it didn't fully reach her eyes. "Yeah, I'm all right-I'm used to it by now. It's not that big of a deal."

"Oh come on, Leah…you're acting like it's normal everyday practice to be made fun of!"

"It is for me, Helen. I'm not as popular as you two are or Adri was…but I'm okay with that, since I've got good friends. And since we're going to kick your butts next Quidditch match."

"Oh, really?" Susan smirked. "I know seven people who would disagree with you." Leah quietly huffed. "Well, we'll see who gets the last laugh this next weekend." she teased.

Ravenclaw was going to win.

Her sisters were going _down._

Later that evening, the four Marauders walked back into the Gryffindor common room. They had had a long day of partying-and staying up the night before-and all of them were ready for some sleep. As they entered, they were immediately hit with a rush of warmth from the fire, the sounds of students chattering-

And the sound of someone crying.

"Who…is that?" Remus queried. They looked around until they saw Lily Evans sitting in a chair in the very corner of the common room, quietly sobbing, so as not to draw attention to herself. By the tear tracks down her face, she had been there for quite some time. Before he even realized it, James had started walking forwards. "You guys go on up to bed…I'll talk to her."

"Are you sure, mate? She might bite your ear off!" Sirius protested. James smiled at him, shrugging his shoulders. "Well, even if she does, I'll feel better about knowing that I at least tried. I mean, it's not every day that I get to talk to Lily Evans!"

"Yes it is!"

"And you muck it up."

"Every single time."

"Yeesh…some supportive best friends you lot are." James good-naturedly grumbled, letting out a quiet chuckle. He then started walking over towards the crying girl, keeping watch out of the corner of his eye to make sure that Sirius actually got Remus and Peter up into the dormitory. Once he was sure, he slowly sat down near Lily-close enough that he could put a hand on her shoulder if he wanted, but far enough away that she wouldn't feel like he was crowding her and just trying to flirt. "Hey, Evans." James murmured quietly. "I know I'm probably the last person you want to see right now, but…I just wanted to let you know that if you ever want to talk about it, I'll listen." He started to get up when she didn't respond, but froze as she placed her hand over top his. He slowly sat down, watching her cautiously.

"I, uh…I don't expect you to understand, but, uh…I got in a fight with Severus today. A, uh…a pretty big one, and uh...he said that he was always ashamed that I wasn't of magical birth, like he was…pretty much that I wasn't like him at all. His friends joined in on it…and I told him that if that's the way he felt, that we shouldn't be friends anymore…" She broke off, trying to hold back another sob. "Somehow it still hurts…like a piece of me is getting ripped out."

"I understand." James murmured. When Lily looked up at him in shock, he smiled at her gently. "D'ya remember all that hubbub that went on between us Marauders earlier in the year? Sirius pulled a prank on Snivi… _Severus_ …that went way too far-way beyond what we normally do. It tore us apart for almost a month, and it took Sirius making himself sick over it for us to finally reconcile." He placed his other hand on top of hers. "I know how you feel, Lily. I may not care for Sni… _ **Severus**_ …at all, but I know what he means to you. It's like with Sirius and I…so I know what it feels like to have them…betray you, for lack of a better word." Lily suddenly launched herself at James, and after a few moments of shock, James immediately embraced her back. They sat there for a few minutes, before Lily was finally able to calm herself down. As she pulled back from the hug, she looked up at him gratefully and murmured, "Thanks." James grinned at her, slowly standing up as he did so. "No problem. If you ever need anything, just let me or one of the Marauders know. Speaking of the Marauders…"

"Yeah, yeah…go make sure that they're actually in bed." Lily chuckled, and James's face brightened at the sound. "Oh, James…is Remus…is he all right?" Lily still hadn't told them how, but she had found out about Remus's "furry little problem", and was one of the few others besides James, Sirius, and Peter who knew. "Yeah, he's all right…just tired and a bit sore. I'll tell him you asked about him, though." He smiled at her again, waving, before turning to dash up the stairs towards the boys dormitory. Lily looked down at the ground, letting out a quiet huff of laughter-and of shock.

"Will wonders never cease."

 _ **A/N 2: Well…I am glad at how this ended up! It actually deviated a bit from my original plan…originally, I was going to write the actual argument between Lily and Snape…but I'm not certain on my ability to write Snape convincingly yet, so I chose to just write the aftermath…which actually worked really well! I know that technically Lily doesn't start actually getting along with James until sixth year, but I decided to bend the rules a little (sorry, JK!), and say that the seeds were planted during fifth year (after the "Mudblood" incident and Sirius's prank), when Lily started to see that side of James. I also know that the timeline of this story (like what months things take place in) is absolutely screwy…I guess the best that I can say is that James, Sirius, and Peter became Animagi over the summer (like, that's when they finished everything they had to do), but then they had to wait for the first full moon of the school year. So I guess this chapter takes place in December? And it's supposed to be after the two aforementioned incidents…oi. Just put those two events earlier in your brain, I guess, or…do something…IDK.**_

 _ **The next chapter should be out soon-ish…and I'm currently working on the huge chapter of death that is Chapter 10 (it is currently GINORMUS), but I also have a couple of other stories to update, so…**_ _ **It should be coming out soon, though!**_

 _ **I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you all soon!**_

 _ **God bless,**_

 _ **1monster2**_


	7. Don't Beieve Them-Not A Word

**A/N: Hello, all! I'm happy to finally get back into this story! I was stuck on cliffhangers for both this story and for WJC (When Jack Cried) for a long time…but I finally decided to just sit down and write it. I had some free time, so… ;) Luckily, this only took about 3 hours to write…and I've been able to watch YouTube videos the entire time to keep myself occupied. I just have to be ready for a crap ton of stuff on Friday…a.k.a. a big assignment or test due each class (and I have four classes that day), plus a voice lesson, and an audition. Oh geez… ;) I just need to get through this weekend, and then I'll be all right.** **Hopefully I'll have a new chapter soon…after this, there'll be 3 more chapters, and then the "THANK YOU!" chapter… ;) Wow, this story is ending soon! Ahh! BTW, the sequel for this story is up now, called "The End of It All" (I think that's the title), which begins in the summer between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, and basically details how Leah and the others reunite, and how they deal with the events that unfold (including certain deaths of certain characters… ;) ) The first chapter is out now, so feel free to take a look and let me know what you think!**

 **DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL I JUST LOVE THE MARAUDERS!**

 **Responses to reviews:**

 **Biankies: Haha, yeah, it probably would…no problem! I will try…I eat my way through packs of gum way too quickly. ;) That sounds fun! I can't do it right now, because I have a crap ton of stuff blowing up in my face right now, but I can definitely do that at some point! I've already had kind of an idea about doing one after they (Marauders/Lily) graduate Hogwarts…I really want to write more James and Leah stuff, because I love their relationship so much… ;) Yeah, they do have it easier here…but just wait until chapters 9 and 10. I guarantee they will sound very familiar very quickly. ;)**

 **Once again, thanks are due to my spectacular beta, FansieFace, who makes sure all of my chapters actually end up sounding coherent and that I don't do any super weird stuff… ;) Basically, she makes my story brilliant, and I'm so glad I get to work with her on my story!** **Love ya, FansieFace!**

 **REFERENCE ALERT! (to one of my favorite bits of the series...)**

 **Please enjoy "** _ **The Leah Chronicles**_ **" Chapter 7!**

Today was just one of those days for Leah. She could feel it when she woke up-it was going to be one of those days that utterly sucked. For one thing, she had double Potions in the morning with the Slytherins (which meant that she had double Potions with _Montair_ ), and then double Charms immediately afterwards. They were making Girding Potions, which Leah was having a significant amount of difficulty with, as with the Banishing Charm. Montair wouldn't shut up throughout all of Potions, and was repeatedly messing around with her back, as she ended up sitting in front of him. She couldn't find any of her friends, and so stayed in the background, trying not to draw attention to herself. She ate lunch by herself, before heading off to Transfiguration. After that, it was off to Defense of the Dark Arts. By the time Leah finished classes, it was about an hour before dinner. She ate quickly again, before heading up to Ravenclaw Tower.

"Hey, Leah-come over here!" Leah turned to see Carter waving her over to a group of chairs off in the corner, where the rest of her Quidditch teammates were sitting. She quickly made her way over and sat down, gratefully dropping her bag on the floor as she did so. "Man, am I glad to be out of class!" she murmured. The others laughed, and Elliot and Cooper slapped her on the back. "Same here, little lady-and you're not even in our year yet!"

"Hardy har har…It definitely feels like it, though." Leah joked. Joel cleared his throat, and everyone turned towards him. "All right, everybody-we've beat both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and now we just have to take care of Slytherin. I was working on some plays based on how they played their last game against Gryffindor…" The team then began to work out a plan for their upcoming game that next week. For a while, Leah was enjoying herself. After a while, thought, she began to hear comments from some other Ravenclaws behind her. "I don't get why Joel would keep that old retard on as Keeper. She couldn't stop a single Quaffle from Hufflepuff."

"I know-it's probably because her sisters are on the team and she wanted them to feel like their team was actually competent."

"They're more competent than she is, though! I don't get why Joel would let someone who is so mentally deranged and socially awkward on his team-they need someone who would actually be a benefit to the team." Leah clenched her hands in her lap, trying not to respond to the taunts of the seventh years behind her. She felt two gentle hands land on hers and slowly pull them back out of fists, however. "Easy, Leah. Don't let them get to you." Elliot murmured. "You know what you're made of, and you know that you're better than them." Leah sighed, trying to breathe through her anger. "It's rather hard to do that when you know that they're right."

"No, they're not, Leah-you are so much better than that. You are a fantastic Keeper, and a brilliant person, and I am glad that I get to know you as a teammate and friend." Elliot replied, squeezing her hands. Leah sighed, before nodding slightly at him. "I'll try." she whispered quietly. Elliot smiled softly, before turning back towards Joel-although Leah did notice that he hadn't let go of her hand. " _Could he…no, he couldn't. But…could he really?_ " she inwardly queried. After all, it wasn't like there hadn't been relationships on the team before…just not always ones that worked very well. Almost everyone remembered a Beater named Markus and a Chaser named Liz…they were together for almost two years, but after the breakup, Liz _really_ needed a dentist. " _Luckily Elliot isn't a Beater…he just gets hit_ _ **by**_ _Beaters._ "

After the meeting with her team, Leah went off to the library to study for a couple of tests she had the next day. She had enjoyed the time with her team, but she was excited to head off on her own and study. She had almost made it to the library when she felt someone grab her arm and yank her to the ground. She let out a cry of pain as she landed hard on the ground, her right arm bending painfully underneath her. She looked up to see Montair standing there with his cronies, glaring profusely at her. "You absolute retard. How dare you interfere in Severus's conversation with that filthy Mudblood?"

"It wasn't a conversation-he was bullying her! I won't let anyone bully my friends-especially people like him." Leah growled. Montair sneered back at her, kicking her arm out from under her as he did so. "I'm sure you wouldn't understand this, you blood traitor, but pure bloods are superior to all others. Especially Mudbloods, who are no better than-"

"Are you sure you want to finish that sentence? Because I sure would love to turn you into a ferret and bounce you up and down for a few hours." Both Leah and Montair turned to see James, Sirius, and Remus all standing there, each looking particularly murderous. All three had their wands drawn, and were glaring at Montair. "Leah-are you okay?" Remus queried.

"Ye-ah! No..." Leah had just tried to push to her feet, but found out immediately that putting any weight on her right arm was _not_ a good idea. At her pained declaration, both Sirius and Remus growled at the younger boy. "Get out of here now, before you get your insides handed to you." It took a little while, but Montair and his friends finally exited the hallway. As soon as he was gone, the three Marauders rushed over to their younger friend. "What happened, Leah?" James questioned softly. Leah sighed, trying to hold herself up on one hand. "Do you just mean right now or all day…?" Her friends looked at her, confused, but then Remus's eyes widened. "That's right-I saw Elliot and Mara earlier, and they said some people were giving you a hard time earlier…"

"Well, really it was my back they were giving a hard time, since they were behind me…" Leah murmured absently. "Today was not a good day for me."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I had Double Potions-with the Slytherins-immediately followed by Double Charms-and I'm struggling with both at the moment-and then had Transfiguration and DADA…and I couldn't find any of my friends, so I sat by myself…and then those idiots started saying stuff behind my back…it wasn't anything I haven't heard before, though. Then, I was planning to come study, but…you saw what happened." As the younger girl finished speaking, James looked at her quizzically. "Leah-you said that what the people said to you wasn't anything new, right?" A nod. "Then they say things like that to you all the time?" Another nod. "You don't believe them, do you?" At this question, Leah didn't respond, merely looking at the ground-but that was all the conformation that the Marauders needed. They glanced at each other, before Remus cleared his throat. "Hey, Newt…will you let me see your arm? I might be able to fix it for you, so you don't have to go to the hospital wing." It took a few seconds, but Leah shyly moved her right arm up, wincing in pain as she did so. Remus gently placed his hand underneath her arm, slowly ghosting his hand up and down until he felt a slight lump. As soon as he touched it, Leah cried out in pain. "Yep-definitely broken. Hang on one second…" He gripped her arm a little tighter (while not touching her injury in the process), pointed his wand at the break, and murmured, " _Episky_." Leah cried out once as the bone shifted inside of her arm, but sighed in relief a second later. Her arm was still sore, but nothing compared to how bad the pain had been. "Thanks, Moony." she murmured.

"You're welcome." Remus replied, smiling at her. He then made to say something, but Sirius cleared his throat instead. 'You shouldn't believe what those people say about you, Leah. I know you're used to it because of who you are, but you shouldn't be. You are a special and unique lady, and I'm glad to be your friend, as I know James and Remus are. Plus, you give us someone new to tease." A gentle smirk accompanied his words, and Leah managed to shyly smile at him. "So don't believe for a minute what they say about you-it's not true." Leah then surprised him by leaning forwards and giving him a warm-but one-handed-hug. "I'll try. It'll probably take a while, but…I'll try." All three boys smiled brightly at her.

"Leah…why was Montair so mad at you?" James queried. Leah sighed, not really looking at him. In response, James reached a hand under her chin and gently turned her face towards his. "Why was he so mad at you?" the older boy questioned softly. Leah timidly met his eyes, before sighing quietly. "I may, uh…may have gotten in between Lily and Snape during a fight…and Montair didn't like it very much."

"When was the fight?"

"Yesterday. At first, he was just saying the normal things about purebloods and …the other sort of blood….and then he started defaming and deriding you all. I don't mind people making fun of me, I'm used to it, but when someone starts in on you all, I snap and start punching them in the face. I didn't actually punch him in the face, but I really wanted to. He must have told Montair about it, because Montair was extremely mad at me about it." James nodded, but then stopped, his eyes narrowing as they drifted a little ways across her face. He then moved his hand up to cup her left cheek, before his long and slender fingers gently brushed her hair aside from her temple. A dark black and blue bruise spread across a good part of her temple. "Where did that come from?" he queried. Leah shook her head, nervously fidgeting and looking anywhere but James. " _Leah-look at me._ " Remus and Sirius both smirked, recognizing the gentle but stern tone of their friend's voice-especially since it had been used on them before. Leah finally looked up at him, noticing how his eyes had hardened slightly. "Who gave you that bruise?" he questioned. Leah sighed, before responding, "Snape and Mulciber. They, uh…they didn't like the fact that I stood up for Lily." All three boys immediately looked like they were going to slap the two boys in the face, but they stopped at the look on Leah's face as she watched three people walk by. "They were the three who were talking about you earlier?" Remus queried. Leah nodded, sighing a little as the three laughed at her while walking by. "Come on-let's go. I know what we should go do. The kitchens are close by…ish…and we can sneak in and get some dessert. I know Sirius has been wanting to go there for a while, and after the day you've had, I think you could use it, Newt." Remus got to his feet, before he and James both got Leah to her feet (since her arm was still very sore). Sirius also rose to his feet, and then immediately tried to tackle James, who dashed away. The two of them chased each other down the corridor, while Leah and Remus followed behind, laughing at their friends.

The day had not been a good one, that was true.

But her friends had made the evening a _lot_ better.

 _ **A/N 2: Well…I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I really enjoyed writing this…especially the bit between Leah and the Marauders. They're starting to seem more like older brothers/younger sister, and that makes it fun to write! I also enjoyed writing the bit between Leah and Elliot…which may or may not blossom out into something more! ;) I've never written any sort of romance whatsoever besides whatever is already in canon and necessary for the story…so this is new territory for me!**_ __ _ **Should be fun! ;)**_

 _ **Hopefully the next chapter should be up soon…super excited to work on it!**_ __

 _ **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all soon!**_

 _ **God bless,**_

 _ **1monster2**_


	8. The Marauders Take Hogsmede

**A/N: Hello, all! I'm super super SUPER sorry that this chapter took so long to get out…I fully meant to get it out quickly after I published the last chapter. Unfortunately, that then began the three-week process known as "Hell Week" for me…yes, for all of you theatre geeks out there, typically "Hell Week" is only one week long, but I had prep for finals week, then finals week,** _ **then**_ **dress rehearsal week, and** _ **then**_ **opening weekend. And then…it just got hard for me to churn out new chapters. I pushed "** _ **When Jack Cried**_ **" off for a while as well, but I finally managed to finish that behemoth of a story. ;) Now my main focus is on this one, before I head to some others. I hope I'll be able to get this chapter out decently quickly and read-able…I have 15 credits worth of classes (5 classes, each 3 credits), and then work, where I work (if I'm scheduled for all the shifts I normally am) about 16 hours. So….yeah…um…I am going to work to get this story finished, though, even if it kills me. ;)**

 **I also wanted to let y'all know-and I'll put this up on my other stories as well-that I *fingers crossed* will not be starting any new multi-chapters in the near future. I've got way too many unfinished ones going as it is, so I'm going to finish those before starting new ones-which includes "** _ **The End of All Things**_ **". Just in case you're looking for another multi-chapter from me at some point…**

 **I also wanted to give a special…shout-out, I guess…as it were, to a guest who motivated me to get back into this story, without even meaning to. Basically, by only reading the summary-and** _ **misreading it**_ **at that-they decided that the story was going to be terrible, and that my OC (Leah) was going to be a complete Mary Sue…all because she is the quote-unquote "FIRST" student to have a mental disorder…which is not what I wrote in the summary at all. GAH!** **Seriously, take a look at the review "Ugh" left for chapter 1-I seriously wanted to reach through their computer and soak them…**

 **DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL I JUST LOVE THE MARAUDERS TO BITS!**

 **Responses to reviews:**

" **Ugh": I know you probably won't read this (due to you saying that you're never going to read my story), but I wish you would have read the summary more carefully. I do not say "THE FIRST", I say "ONE OF the first". We don't know how many students have mental disorders at Hogwarts, J.K. Rowling never tells us. I do remember that one of the students (Hannah Abbott, I believe) had some sort of anxiety attack (although that might just have been from testing, I don't remember which book it was in), and yes, Voldermort was always a creepy butt, but we don't know who all had mental disorders. My statement of "ONE OF" the first is true, because she's one of the first we hear about having that sort of disorder (even though she's an OC and not a Rowling-created character). And please, from someone who has multiple mental disorders (including the one** _ **this character has**_ **), please don't assume that that just makes someone a Mary Sue. Leah is more complex because of her social anxiety, and people seem to like her. So, in short (even though, again, you probably won't be reading this), I will heartily enjoy continuing to prove you wrong.**

 **5423789: Hey! Thank you so much for the review! Also, thanks so much for the formatting advice! I have a habit of writing really big paragraphs, and usually have the Microsoft Word window squished in/text smaller in order to watch videos while I type. (And somehow my stories are successful. ;) ) Thus, I often don't catch stuff like that. I will work harder on noticing it, though!** **Thanks a ton-I hope you enjoy this update!**

 **Olivia0707: Thanks! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Of course, massive thanks to my beta, FansieFace, who makes sure everything I write sounds fantastic for y'all!**

 **POSSIBLE WHUMPAGE WARNING, MAJOR CLIFFHANGER ALERT!**

 **Please enjoy "** _ **The Leah Chronicles**_ **" Chapter 8!**

Leah pulled her coat more tightly around herself. "Why is it so cold out here?" she groaned. Remus chuckled. James, Sirius, and Peter had headed into Hogsmeade early, and were going to meet them-Remus, Leah, and Lily-at the Three Broomsticks once they arrived. Hogsmeade in December was beautiful, with snow all over the ground and the trees, but it was bitterly cold, and all three were wearing their heaviest winter cloaks, hats, and mittens. "It's almost Christmas, Leah-it's going to be cold everywhere. And we'll be headed to the Three Broomsticks soon enough."

"Besides-you wanted to go to the Broomsticks, right?" Lily queried, jokingly nudging her friend. Leah stuck out her tongue, rubbing her hands together. "Yes, I did, but I didn't anticipate how cold it was going to be. I'm from Cornwall-it doesn't get that cold out there!" She sniffled a little, before jumping a bit as the older boy slung an arm around her shoulders. "How many gifts do you need to get, Newt? You're a bit behind, aren't you?"

"Yeah, yeah…I still have to get something for my siblings and parents…and for all five of you." Leah reached into her pocket, pulling out a small bag of money a few seconds later. "I don't have a ton of money, but it'll be enough to get me through a couple drinks, plus purchasing the gifts." Lily grinned at her, gently patting her shoulder as they walked towards the door of the bar. "Don't worry, Leah-I've still got to get some things to buy too. Why don't we go together, after we slog through the butterbeers with the boys?" Leah smiled, and both she and the older girl chuckled at Remus's mock-protesting. As they walked along, the three continued to tease each other over almost every topic. "So, what's going on with you and Elliot?" Lily queried, laughing out loud at her friend's reaction.

"What the…how did you…when did…shut up!" As she groaned, the three looked up to see Elliot, Mara, and Joseph walking by. When Leah saw them, she immediately squeaked and hid behind Lily slightly. Her older friends both laughed at her, waving off the three Ravenclaws as they did so. A few seconds later, once Remus and Lily had calmed down and stopped laughing-for the most part-all three heard the sound of pounding feet headed their way. As they looked up, Remus was immediately tackled by three people. "Moony, Moony, Moony-you have to come see this thing! Come on! Oh, hi, Leah and Lily-come on, Moony!" James, Sirius, and Peter drug the fourth Marauder off towards Zonkos, leaving Lily and Leah to simply stare at each other. "Um, so…what do we do now?" Leah queried. Lily shrugged, smirking at her. "Let's just head over to the Three Broomsticks. They'll meet us there if they're still going to join us. If they don't, we can head to one of the stores nearby, and they'll catch up whenever they decide to." Leah nodded, and the two girls headed for the bar.

They didn't make it, however.

As they approached the bar, two students stepped in front of them, and two followed in from behind. "Well, well, well…if it isn't the Mudblood herself." Mulciber chuckled, glaring straight at Lily. Leah growled, glaring directly at the older boy. "Leave her alone, Mulci-butt. Lily is a better person in every way then you will ever be, so leave us alone and go slip on some ice or whatever it is you Slytherins do."

"You should learn your place, little blood traitor. Your status is just as low as hers, associating with filth like her." Avery growled, advancing towards them. Lily tried to pull Leah back, but the younger girl wasn't moving. "My place is right here-in between you twits and her. And nothing's ever going to change that." The older Slytherins glowered at her, but Leah didn't move. "You've been standing up to us for too long, you little chick. Too much time spent with those Gryffindor brats."

"Don't you dare talk about our friends like that!" Lily cried, finally moving up to stand equal with Leah. "Leah deserves to be treated fairly and with respect-not shot down every chance you get. And you're wrong-we don't spend enough time with _her_." She glared at each of the boys, and Leah finally began to understood where the stereotype of "redheads have fiery tempers" came from. She was never happier that she was Lily's friend than at that moment…especially since her friends had a tendency to go running off without her, and to bail at the first sign of trouble. Out of the corner of her eye, Leah could see someone approaching, but she didn't figure that they were anyone important. Snape stepped forwards a bit, glaring darkly at both of them. "You Mudbloods and blood traitors will end up in the same place in hell." Before either of the girls could react, he whipped out his wand and muttered, " _Expulso_!" under his breath. The ensuing blast knocked both girls off of their feet, sending them slamming into a nearby wall. It took them a few moments to even _attempt_ to sit up, but as soon as they did, they heard a different voice call out, " _Lacero_!" Leah immediately placed a hand to her neck and shoulder, where a long cut was beginning to appear and leak blood. Lily had one as well, but on her arm instead. They both tried to get up, but winced in pain. They could see Mulcibur raising his wand again, but suddenly-

" _Petrificus Totalus_!"

The older Slytherin suddenly froze up, before falling over. The entire group turned as he fell to see Sirius pointing his wand directly at them, with James, Remus, and Peter behind him. All four of them looked furious. They strode quickly towards the group, and moved in between the girls and the Slytherins. James and Sirius kept their wands trained on Avery, Mulciber, and Snape, while Remus and Peter turned to Lily and Leah. "Are you two okay?" the werewolf queried. Lily nodded. Leah _tried_ to, but the gash in her neck started to sting and bleed, and she immediately grimaced. Remus smiled tightly at her, slowly moving a hand to hold her head in place while he looked at her neck. "It's not too bad…I know a spell that will help with that." He drew his wand, and whispered something under his breath. Within a few seconds, the scratches had disappeared, and the pain faded away to nearly nothing. Both girls sighed in relief, and then smiled at the two Marauders. "Thank you, Remus." Lily murmured. Remus smiled at her, before helping both to their feet. "You're welcome." he replied. He and Peter helped the two girls steady themselves, before turning towards James and Sirius. "Guys-we're good to go here. Let's get to the Three Broomsticks, it's freezing out here." Remus whispered in their ears. The other boys sighed, but eventually nodded. The six began to walk off, but James glared at the Slytherins in one last taunt. "If you ever go after those two ladies again, I will not hesitate to punch you in the face. Both Lily and Leah are better people than you will ever be, and you all need to back the crap off of them." Once he said that, he turned around and stalked off, quickly catching up with his friends. It was a rather short walk towards the bar, but the Marauders kept an eye out all the way.

"She did _what_?" Montair stood and stared at his friends in shock, completely frozen. He and Avery and Mulciber were sitting in front of the fire in the Slytherin Common Room, and were talking about the events of the day in Hogsmeade. The older boys had brought up Leah standing up for Lily, and he was gaping in shock and confusion. "How dare she stand up for that inbred Mudblood? I've been telling her again and again-she should not be allowed to be at Hogwarts, or even to show her retarded face around here again!"

"Well, apparently, your lesson hasn't sunken in very well. Or you're just not teaching it very well." Mulciber snarled, stretching out a little more comfortably in his chair. When James had body-bound him, he had fallen on some rather sharp rocks, and his back and legs were extremely sore. "We've got enough to deal with ourselves with those Gryffindor bastards causing havoc everywhere. You need to deal with that impudent brat, and do it before any more of our house has to get involved." Montair scowled at the two older boys, before staring into the fire. After a few minutes, he sat back in his chair, gesturing to Adolph and Bennett.

"And I know just where to start."

 _ **A/N 2: Well…Sorry this took so long to come out, again…I haven't been that busy lately, I just haven't had the drive to write. Write fanfictions, anyways. Hopefully I'll be working on some more soon. ;) Also, apologies that this is a super short chapter-I had no idea where I was going with this one-I did outline it, but my brain was just hitting a cement wall mixed with bricks the whole time, so I figured I'd go with what I could get and finish it up quickly. I'm also an overwhelmed introvert, so at the moment my brain is completely fried. ;) I'm hoping to work on chapter 9 soon, and then just send chapter 10 over to be beta-ed, cause it's done! Yay! ;)**_

 _ **Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all soon!**_

 _ **God bless,**_

 _ **1monster2**_


	9. The Revenge of the Slytherins

**A/N: Hey, all! I'm sorry this is so late-I meant to take care of it during winter break, but I got pretty busy…I've also been working on a novel/TV show/movie, and so I worked on those during winter break. I meant to get back to this story, but I couldn't think of anything to write…thankfully chapter 10 is already done!** **I'm really happy with how this story has been going, and how well you all have liked it (except for that one person…)! If you want to read more of Leah's adventures, please check out "** _ **We Look After Our Own**_ **" (my most recent Leah story), "** _ **A Giant Mission**_ **", or "** _ **The End of All Things**_ **" (multi-chapter that begins after Goblet of Fire)!**

 **I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL I JUST LOVE HARRY POTTER!** **(especially the Marauders!)**

 **Responses to reviews:**

 **Biankies: Yeah, I was really angry with that person, but I think not updating in a bit probably helped me to cool down…plus the fact that you and a few of the others stood up for me.** **No problem-I read and forget to review all the time, but I'm glad you're enjoying it!** **Thanks!**

 **Guest: Thank you! I hope you enjoy this update!**

 **Insane Panda Hero: Haha…sorry how late this is! I got kinda busy, but I'm hoping that this makes up for it! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Guest #2: Heh heh…** **I hope you enjoy this update!**

 **Olivia0707: Yep-I hope you enjoy this chapter!** **Next one will be out soon!**

 **The Pied Piper's Assistant: Thanks so much! Thanks for the motivation-I didn't ace them, but I got mostly B's and A's, so YAY! Haha…I hope you and your friend Leah had fun! I hope you enjoy this update!**

 **Notice: I have recently lost contact with my beta, FansieFace. If there is anyone out in the fanfiction-verse who is in contact with them, please let them know I've been missing them!**

 **HUGE WHUMPAGE WARNING AND POSSIBLE CLIFFHANGER ALERT! (but seriously, this chapter has a** _ **TON**_ **of whumpage)**

 **Please enjoy "** _ **The Leah Chronicles**_ **" Chapter 9!**

As Leah walked up the stairs, she pulled her cloak around herself. Ravenclaw Tower was the highest tower in the castle-highest dorm tower, anyways-and as such, was in the draftier section of the castle. She had been working in the library for a long time, and so it was rather dark and cold by the time she arrived at the door. Before she could knock, however, the door swung open, revealing both Joel and Mara. "Hey, guys-how did you know that I was there?"

"They've been opening the door for everyone, hoping that it's you." Joseph teased, leaning back in his chair close to the fire. He soon had to dodge multiple projectiles of parchment coming from every team member. "Oh come on, guys…" he complained, but his teammates just laughed. "Why were you waiting for me?" Leah queried.

"We heard some Slytherins talking about Montair and his friends, and that they were going to come after you at some point today," Elliot responded, scooting over a little to allow the younger woman to sit down next to him. As she did, she noticed the expressions of her friends, and looked embarrassedly down at the ground. "What?" she queried. The others chuckled, and smirked even more when Elliot wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to rest against his side. "Don't worry, Leah-they're all just jealous of us," he smiled, rolling his eyes at the rest of the team. "We do have to keep an eye out for Montair a lot more, though-if he's planning to come after you, that's _not_ something we want to have happen."

"Come on, guys-you can't watch out for him all the time," Leah responded, biting her lip guiltily. "It's not like you can spend every second around me."

"Well, no, but we let the Marauders know too, and they're going to keep an eye out whenever they're around you," Joel replied, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Plus, have you forgotten that we have the human bloodhounds on our team?" Both Carter and Cooper growled, but only in mock-protest. "With them on our side, no one is going to get close to you."

"And I don't think your _boyfriend_ will let anyone near you either," Mara joked. Leah's face immediately flushed red, and she tucked it against his chest. Elliot huffed quietly, resting his chin on the top of his head. "Don't worry, Leah-they know that if they start teasing you, I'm going to take Carter and Cooper's bats and hit Quaffles at them." Leah chuckled, eventually turning back to face her friends. "I will too."

The next few days, Leah-and her friends-kept a close eye out for Montair and his cronies, making sure to keep the fourth-year away from them whenever he was seen. Unfortunately, she had to see him during some of her classes, since they were both fourth-years, but she was thankfully able to sit on the opposite side on the room as him. This lasted for about a week or so, before everyone began to believe that the Slytherins weren't really going to do anything. There had been some teasing from other Houses towards Elliot about dating Leah, but he shut them down extremely quickly, barely holding himself back from punching the bullies in the face. "If I want to date Leah, that is my choice, and I love her just for who she is. So shut up now, or all you're going to see is my fist slamming through your face." He very nearly punched a Gryffindor, but Cooper-who was nearby-held him back. "Don't, El. They're not worth it." The fifth-year growled, but allowed the other man to pull him back.

By this point, Remus was beginning to feel sick again. He was falling back into his argumentative and angry phase, and James and Sirius were working hard to keep him from yelling down some first year, and to drag him away from Snape. Both of them wanted to go after the other boy, but they didn't want Remus to do something that he would regret after the full moon was over. None of them had told Leah what was going on, since Remus had said not to, but she seemed to understand that _something_ was going on, since she would back away when one of the other Marauders shook their heads, or subtly approach either James, Sirius, or Peter, and slip them a bar of chocolate as she passed them. Where she got the chocolate, they never knew, but she seemed to have an almost endless supply of it. Sirius would ruffle her hair in thanks, which she would immediately mock-protest. James, on the other hand, would pull her into a side hug and gently place a kiss on her forehead, which she would lean into for a few seconds, before gaping up at him. "James-aren't you trying to date Lily?"

"So? She knows that we're just friends…and I may have already told her that Sirius wants to do it to." The younger Ravenclaw let out peals of laughter, before realizing what time it was and having to dart off for her next class. By the time dinner rolled around, Remus was barely holding it together. James, Sirius, and Peter had tried to drag him off to the hospital wing, but he was insistent on getting dinner before he went, and the others eventually acquiesced, in order to keep his temper from exploding . No one else ended up sitting around them, and they were able to finish dinner extremely quickly and get him headed up towards the hospital wing. As they left, they missed seeing Leah leaving the Great Hall rather quickly, followed intently by Montair, Adolph, Bennett, and Fox. She didn't seem to see them until it was too late, getting cut off right as she turned down a rather deserted hallway.

"Well, hello there, little baby retard," Fox declared, stalking up towards her and pushing her back into the wall. Leah glanced up, gaping in horror as she tried to scoot backwards. "What are you four doing here? The food is back in the Great Hall."

"Oh, we're not here for the food-we're here for _you_ ," Montair cackled, strutting towards her. Leah gulped and pulled out her wand, attempting to get away, but Bennett muttered, " _Expeliarmus_ ," and her wand shot straight towards him. The Slytherins and Gryffindor chuckled nastily, advancing menacingly towards the younger woman. "Why so anxious to get away? We were just getting to know each other!" Within a few moments, the four boys had set upon her, and Leah didn't have the breath to do anything, including make any sort of noise. She seemed to have lost consciousness for a few moments, as she suddenly blinked her eyes open in a much different location. It wasn't anywhere that she recognized, that was for sure-everything was much older and dilapidated than in the castle, and almost every piece of furniture-and wall, for that matter-had what appeared to be _claw marks_. A second later, though, any analysis she may have been making quickly faded away, quickly replaced by the intense sensation of pain that seared through her entire body. "Let's just stick her in here and be done with it-that mongrel is supposed to be here soon ." A second later, she felt her body slam onto a hard surface, before Montair's face swam in front of her. "This is the last time we're going to be hearing from you, you _filth_ ," he leered, wrapping something around her mouth. Leah attempted to say something, but found that she couldn't speak for the cloth in her mouth. Her tormenters spent one or two more minutes laughing at her, but they eventually left, leaving the cupboard's door open slightly. Leah sat there for a few minutes, feeling a panic attack building as she found that any attempt to move resulted in massive amounts of pain. It came as a shock to her, then, when about five minutes had passed, and four more voices began to echo throughout the room…four that she recognized…

 _What are they doing here?_

As she gaped in amazement, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all entered the room, three of them supporting the last, who looked as if he was about to keel over. Leah immediately attempted to make some sort of noise to alert them to her presence, but had forgotten how much it hurt to even think of moving. It seemed that one of them had noticed something, however, as Sirius froze, looking around the entire room. "What is it, Padfoot?"

"I don't know…it sounded like someone else was in here," Sirius murmured, his eyes locking on the cupboard for a few moments before turning back to the others. By this point, something had begun to happen to Remus, and the older Gryffindor was beginning to cry out in pain. She couldn't see from her position, but it seemed as if her friend was beginning to…shift…into…something…

What the _heck_?

While she was watching Remus, the other three suddenly ceased to exist. Into her view suddenly popped three animals: a stag, a large black dog, and a tiny rat. It took a few seconds, but Leah's eyes finally connected with her brain.

 _James…Sirius…Peter…they're all Animagi!? When did…how did…wait._

 _If they're Animagi, what does that make Remus?_

… _Oh_ … _ **that's**_ _what that makes Remus._

Remus-or what was _normally_ Remus-had stood up, revealing an incredibly large werewolf in his place. It stared around the room like it owned the place, before zeroing in on the cupboard and growling menacingly. It started to advance, but before it got too close, the large black dog barked at it, pushing it away from the cupboard. The stag quickly joined in, and they soon had calmed the werewolf down, and the four of them slowly slunk out of the room, 'talking' to each other all the way. Once they had completely left the building, Leah groaned.

"Great…so some of my best friends are werewolves and Animagi…but they're also my only way out of here. And they just left."

 _Great_.

 _ **A/N 2: Well, that went better than expected! Again, I'm sorry this took so long! I just got caught up in my school/work/other stuff, and then I…may or may not have broken my other computer… ;) Which motivated me to work on this story! ;) I hope you like this chapter, since a good chunk of it was just me word-vomiting all over the place! I know a lot of you were anticipating the scene of what Montair and the others did to Leah, but I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it…and you'll see the results next chapter! It took me a while to get to that scene, and I wanted to get to the bit that happened afterwards, so that's why it's so short. That, and that I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do…although there were some things that had to happen…again, you'll see next chapter!**_

 _ **Also, probably no one cares, but I just wanted to clarify that I think that all of the Marauders (Remus included) have some sort of special sense thing due to their Animagi/werewolf powers. That's why I have Sirius thinking that there's someone in the room with them, since he's got stronger hearing and smelling than most people. Possibly sight, but I'm not sure. Remus is the same way, but I haven't had an opportunity to show his (or James or Peter's) senses off yet in the story. Probably no one cares, just thought I'd mention it!**_

 _ **I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you all soon!**_

 _ **God bless,**_

 _ **1monster2**_


	10. Picnics and Punishments

**A/N: Hello, all! I want to apologize in advance…this chapter is going to be** _ **ridiculously**_ **long. I didn't originally plan it to be this long, but as I was working I just kept going until I had finally created this beast of a chapter. It's also slightly deviated from my original plan for this chapter…which I think is for the better…but it's up to you guys, so we'll see. There's also a** _ **lot**_ **of James/Leah bonding in this chapter. I am not shipping them, understand-I will always and forever ship Jily-but I see Leah as becoming like a younger sister to James. True, it's that way with the other three as well (although she's not as close to Peter…), but I just see her growing closest to James. Partly because I love James.** **Remus and Sirius tie for second, and Peter's last, because of…well, we all know by now. This chapter contains a very familiar scene to my most frequent reviewers…it seems in every story I write, I have to include someone getting put to sleep. I guess it's because I would love for that to happen to me someday…even though it might mean that I would be getting injured. Dang it! ;) Also included in this chapter is a bit more of a physical description of the Marauders…I might be going a bit OOC here (I'm not exactly sure), but I'm using the scene from…HBP, I think, where Harry accidently uses Legilimency on Snape…as well as Sirius, Remus, and Peter in their adult years (as played by Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, and Timothy Spall), and the scene with the Resurrection Stone in the forest as references. When you see it in the story, it'll make sense. I promise. (It's their voices.) Also (last one, I promise), this chapter contains 3 new spells. I basically just looked up the phrases in Latin (since I figured that that's what I'd use for the spells, since it shows up frequently when JKR names things), and wrote them out. Basically, I created them because I researched all over the place and couldn't find an actual Sleeping Spell, which I wanted to use for Leah…so I used those three instead. I used Google Translate for them, so hopefully they're accurate-ish!**

 **DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL I JUST LOVE THE MARAUDERS AND DON'T WANT THIS STORY TO END!**

 **Also, in case anyone tried to review the new chapter 9 and wasn't able to…I believe I read somewhere that if a chapter was already published, and then someone put a new version of that chapter up, reviewers who had already reviewed wouldn't be able to write reviews for the new version. If this happened to any of you, I apologize-I didn't realize until after I had republished chapter 9, so I hope you all liked it!**

 **WHUMPAGE WARNING!**

 **Please enjoy (the** _ **REALLY**_ **LONG) "** _ **The Leah Chronicles**_ **" Chapter 10!**

The four Marauders collapsed onto the floor, breathing hard. Tonight had been one of their more _intense_ outings, including-to the others-Remus's random desire to attack the armoire in the corner. The three Animagi returned to human form rather quickly, and waited for a few minutes for their fourth to do the same. Once Remus had-less painfully than before-changed back from his werewolf form, the others began to move to a sitting position, getting ready to help him back to the castle. Suddenly, James held up a hand. "Wait a moment-do you hear that?" The other Marauders slowly silenced, and eventually heard a quiet thumping sound coming from the small wooden cupboard to the right of the door. "What is that? There's no one in here besides us!" Remus murmured. The four looked at each other nervously, before slowly creeping forwards. Sirius tried to open the cupboard, but it was completely locked. He took out his wand and murmured, " _Alohomora_!" The door broke open, and the boys all gaped in surprise and horror. Leah was sitting there tied up with multiple ropes, a gag covering her mouth, and several bruises on her pale skin. She quickly turned away from the sudden light that appeared (after being stuck in the dark cupboard for hours), and Remus quickly used his wand to dim the lights in the room. Once he was done, Leah slowly turned back towards them. They could see extreme fear and panic in her eyes, and could hear her slightly hyperventilating.

"Leah…what happened to you?" Peter whispered. At the sound of his voice, Leah jumped, and scooted back as far as she could in the confines of the cupboard. "She can't tell us with that gag on her mouth, mate!" Sirius said, pulling out a pocketknife that he could use to cut her gag and bonds. As soon as Leah saw the knife, though, it almost tripled the strength of the panic attack she was having. Sirius continued to step forwards a few more paces before James stopped him. "Sirius-stop. You're freaking her out even worse. I don't know what it is, but that knife is scaring her almost to death. Put it away." Sirius sighed, but finally put the knife in his pocket-before stopping dead. "James…I think I know why it's freaking her out." He pointed to a spot on Leah's chest, and all four Marauders could see three slash marks through her uniform. Two were shallow and not much to worry about, but the third was rather deep, and could be trouble if it wasn't taken care of relatively soon. "If Montair did this to her…I'm going to punch him in the face. And probably bite his face." Peter muttered. The other Marauders nodded.

They were thinking the exact same thing.

If Montair had hurt her, he was a _dead man_.

"So, how are we going to get her out of there if she keeps freaking out?" Remus queried. "We can't very well help her if she won't let us near her." The others nodded, contemplating it for a bit. Finally, James had an idea. "I think I read somewhere...I think I read that dogs can help someone with panic attacks…maybe, if you're all right, with it, Sirius…" Sirius nodded swiftly, quickly changing back into his Animagus form. He then pulled himself into the cupboard (with help from the other Marauders), and sat down next to Leah's feet. He then slowly but steadily crept forwards until he was sitting by her head. Leah was still freaking out, but her eyes had slowly moved to focus on Sirius. He gave her a second to get used to his presence, before scooting into her side, until he was gently brushing against her arms. James and the others watched nervously, hoping that this idea would work. They could tell, though, that Sirius's presence was helping Leah to calm down slightly. Her hand slowly made its way to softly pet his fur, which caused Sirius to lift his head and gently lick her cheek. It took a while, but Leah finally calmed down. She took in a deep breath and exhaled sharply, before looking up at the Marauders. "…Hi…" she murmured. She choked back a slight sob, and a fresh wave of tears streamed down her face, which she hurriedly tried to wipe away.

"Hey, Leah. Are you all right now?" Peter asked quietly. Leah let out a quiet huff, before shaking her head. "No…I will be eventually, but…not right now."

"Do you think you can get out of the cupboard?" James asked. Leah contemplated it for a moment, before nodding slightly. "I think I might need some help…but yeah. I think so." Thankfully, Sirius had thought to bite through the ropes that had tied her up, and with help from the three older boys (and Sirius, of course), she managed to lower herself from the cupboard and onto the floor. She then gently rested her head on the wood behind her, and let out another breath, her eyes closed. She sensed, rather than saw, the Marauders sitting down around her. "Leah…how long were you in there?" Remus queried gently. Leah sighed before responding. "Um…I'm not exactly sure, but…at least since after dinner."

"After dinner _yesterday_?" Peter questioned, in shock. Leah nodded, not wanting to open her eyes and see her friends' faces. "Yeah…"

"Did you see anything happening in here?" James asked, looking at the others. Leah nodded again, finally opening her eyes, but looking down and away from them. "…Yes…I saw everything that happened in here."

"So do you know who that is?" James asked again, gesturing towards the dog that was sitting near her. "Yeah, I do…thanks, Sirius. For all of that." Sirius shifted back into his human form, before letting out a gentle smile. "Don't worry about it, Leah…it's what friends do. I'm just glad I could help."

"So you saw what…what I became last night?" Remus questioned, turning serious eyes towards Leah. She nodded, finally meeting his gaze. "Yes…and don't worry. I won't tell anybody."

"You won't?"

"No. I know what it's like to be treated as an outcast and looked on with disgust by others…and it's something I wouldn't wish on anyone else. I also know that you kept it a secret for a good reason, and I would never dream of being the person to ruin it. I like Moony too much for that." All four boys let out a relieved sigh. They hadn't thought that Leah would tell anyone if she found out, but they hadn't been exactly sure. After a while, James looked back towards Leah. "Leah…can you tell us what happened? We want to make sure that this never happens to you again." Leah shook her head slightly, her breathing starting to pick up pace again at the question. "I…I can't…if I do, the person…the person will come back and do worse…" The others looked towards James. He and Remus were the best at this sort of thing (convincing people to tell them their problems), as Sirius could sometimes be too sharp and harsh, and Peter could be a bit too nervous to even ask. Remus was still a bit out of it, having gone through his transformation that night, so he wasn't sure how well he would do. Therefore, the honor fell to James.

"Leah…you know you can trust us, right?" A nod. "And you know that we want to look out for you, right?" Another nod. "Then, you know that you can trust us with what happened. We promise that we won't go after this person ourselves…we'll tell Dumbledore and McGonagall what happened, and they'll take care of those idiots. We just want to make sure that you're okay." Leah let a few more tears leak out, not looking at them again. "Did Montair have something to do with it?"

Leah shrugged. "Yes…and no."

"What do you mean?"

"Yes, he had something to do with it…and no…he wasn't the only one." Each Marauder let out a small gasp. "Wait-what? Who else was there?" Sirius asked, worry making his voice a bit sharper than it normally was when talking to Leah. She sighed softly, and then replied, "Montair and his two cronies…and…um…I don't know his name…but that Gryffindor who doesn't like me very much…the one who called me a retarded idiot."

Sirius let out a dark growl. "The next time I see Fox Falconwolf, I'm going to…" He cut himself off when James, Remus, and Peter turned and glared at him. " _Quit while you're ahead, Padfoot._ " Peter murmured quietly.

"Wormtail, why don't you go and let Madame Pomfrey know that we'll be bringing Leah along with us? That way she won't be so surprised when we arrive." Remus muttered. Peter nodded, and swiftly scurried up the passageway, morphing into a rat as he went. Remus then turned back to the others. "Right…now we just need to get Leah and I back up to the castle. Prongs, I think you might need to help Leah…I know normally both you and Padfoot both help me, but-"

"Don't worry, Moony-we've got it covered." James smirked. He carefully helped Leah to her feet as Sirius pulled Remus to his. Both slightly hunched over in pain, but their helpers simply waited until they straightened out before slowly leading them up the tunnel toward the hospital wing. It took a little longer, since Leah was with them, but they finally made it to the top, almost running into Madame Pomfrey and Peter, who were standing nearby.

"Oh, sakes above…come on, help them down over here." the nurse said, moving quickly over to two open beds, which James and Sirius helped Remus and Leah onto. As they did so, the door to the hospital wing (the door from inside the castle) opened, and in swept Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall. They quickly walked over to where the five students were. "Are you all right, Remus?" Dumbledore queried softly. Remus nodded, grimacing slightly as he shifted a bit. "Yes, sir-as all right as I usually am." Dumbledore nodded thankfully, before turning to Leah. "And what, may I ask, happened to you, Ms. Thompson? You are usually only seen in the hospital wing with the Ravenclaw Quidditch team chastising Mr. Marxer for injuring himself… _yet again_." Leah let out a bit of gentle laughter, before looking down at the bed and nervously fidgeting with the sheets. As Sirius put a soft hand on her shoulder-keeping an eye on Remus all the while, to make sure he didn't try to get out of bed to do anything (or fight the nurse-he was still getting rid of the wolf's aggressive anger, and so had a shorter temper than normal), James caught both of her hands in one of his, and then used his other hand to lift her head to face him, looking directly into her eyes as he did so. "Leah-it's okay. You can tell them, remember? We promised that we wouldn't go after the…idiots…who did this to you. We'd let Dumbledore and McGonagall do it, since that's their job. But you have to tell them about it first, all right?"

Leah gulped nervously. "I know, it's just…I can't…" From off to her right, Sirius let out a sigh. "Leah-just imagine you're talking to one of us. It's not a big deal to talk in front of teachers…we do it all the time."

"Yes, but you're not…like me."

"No, but that doesn't mean that we don't get scared of doing it from time to time. But, you know what? Every time you face your fear and fight it-even once-it loses power over you. And James, Remus, Peter, and I are right beside you, and we aren't leaving for anything." Sirius's words seemed to give Leah a lot of comfort…and a slight bit of courage. She slowly looked up at the two professors and took a deep breath before speaking. "Well…I kind of, um…ended up…stuck in a cupboard for…if it's seven now, then…almost thirteen hours…in the Shrieking Shack."

"You spent thirteen hours locked in a cupboard in the Shrieking Shack?" Professor McGonagall queried. When Leah nodded, she asked, "How did this happen?" Leah took a breath again, drawing strength from the touches of both James and Sirius (and the empathetic looks in her direction from Remus and Peter) as she continued. "Well, um…there's a Slytherin, named Montair, who…well, he doesn't like me very much, and um…he decided to 'teach me a lesson', since my friends have been helping me learn how to stand up for myself to…people like him. So, after dinner last night, uh…he and his two cronies, and…a Gryffindor…grabbed me and knocked me out while I was heading back to Ravenclaw Tower. I fought them for a while, which was how I got all this…and then they just left…and I was there until after Remus was…back to normal." Having finished, she looked down at her sheets again, her fingers trying to break free from James's grip in order to continue fidgeting.

"You know about Mr. Lupin's... _condition_?" Dumbledore asked, his voice becoming a bit more serious. Leah nodded cautiously. "Yes, sir, I do…but I will never tell anyone. On my life, I swear that I won't tell anyone about it." Dumbledore and McGonagall looked at each other, seeming to silently communicate before turning back to the nervous girl.

"Leah-the main person behind all of this is the Slytherin Montair, correct?" At McGonagall's questioning, Leah nodded. "Can you tell me who his associates were that helped him?" Leah took a bit of a nervous breath, but nodded again. "Yes…his main two henchmen are two other Slytherins named Adolph and Bennett…and then there was a Gryffindor, named…"

"Fox Falconwolf, Professor."

"Yeah, him…he doesn't really like me much, either." McGonagall nodded. Then, she noticed the stab wounds on Leah's chest. "Leah…who caused those?" Leah's breathing started to speed up a little, but she quickly calmed down by way of both James and Sirius gently squeezing her hands and shoulder. "It was Fox, Professor…he said, uh…he said that…that they should check and see if the "retarded idiot" actually had any guts, because 'she doesn't seem to have any'." When Leah finished speaking, no one said anything. It was as if the air had been sucked out of the room. The only sound that anyone could hear was Leah, who was trying-with limited success-to rein in her sobs that were now reappearing. After a moment, Dumbledore nodded. "Thank you for telling us this, Leah…I know it wasn't easy. I am very proud of you. Now, if you all will excuse me, I am going to summon Professor Slughorn to my office, so that we may work out a suitable punishment for these boys. Minerva, will you join us?"

"Of course, Albus-Fox Falconwolf is in my House, after all." McGonagall replied. Dumbledore nodded, and strode out of the room. McGonagall lingered for a few extra moments. "Leah-I am sorry that Fox did this to you. Rest assured, no one hurts one of my favorite students and gets away with it. Fifty points will be awarded to Ravenclaw, for your courage throughout these last years to do what's right-and for all that you've endured." Leah grinned shyly, looking up at the professor a little. Professor McGonagall then turned to the Marauders. "I am proud of all that you four have done for Leah. I know that your friendship has meant a lot to her this year, and how much you all mean to her." She sighed, smiling. "Twenty points-each-will be added to Gryffindor for your selfless compassion and dedication." She then squared her shoulders, and followed Dumbledore out of the room. Once she was gone, Leah leaned back against the cushions, thoroughly exhausted. Madame Pomfrey seemed to notice as she bustled by with a potion for Remus. "Just hold tight for one second, dearie…once I get Remus sorted, I'll get something for you." Leah rolled over a bit, looking over at Remus.

"Are you all right, Remus? I didn't even think about that-"

"It's all right, Leah." Remus replied, chuckling warmly. "I'm all right-just a bit battered and bruised. You saw what these three do, right?" At Leah's nod, he continued. "Well, they do that so that when we leave the Shrieking Shack, they can keep both me and other people safe."

"I don't really do that much-"

"Yes, you do, Pete. Nothing would work out the way it does without you, right, Prongs?"

"Definitely not, Moony."

Leah smiled shyly at him, and Remus smiled warmly back at her. "I'm fine, Leah." he murmured. "I promise."

It was at that moment that Madame Pomfrey came back around. She gave Remus a potion to drink, and from the sounds that she could hear-since both Sirius and Peter had moved slightly to block her line of sight-Leah could guess that it did not taste very good. Madame Pomfrey then arrived at Leah's bed. "Just the two for you today, Leah…a Calming Draught, just to make sure you're fully over your panic attack…especially since your hands are shaking, and talking to the Professors can't have helped…and a little extra one, just to help your body start to recover, all right?" As Leah nodded, she turned to James, who was sitting to Leah's left. "The second one is a Potion for Dreamless Sleep. Don't let her know that's what it is…and make sure she takes all of it." James nodded seriously.

"Why shouldn't I tell her, Madame Pomfrey?" he whispered back. Madame Pomfrey sighed, looking down at Leah. "She gets stubborn when she knows that's what I'm giving her…she doesn't want to seem weak in front of everyone else, so she says that she can fall asleep without it. Foolish girl then doesn't even begin to _begin_ to fall asleep for another four hours. It's easiest if she's not expecting it." James nodded again. Of course Leah would have a problem with it.

Of _course_.

"Oh, and don't worry about your classes today, dearie…Professor Flitwick and the others already know that you'll be here the whole day." Madame Pomfrey murmured to Leah as she left. Leah nodded, trying to calm herself down a bit. The nurse was right-talking to the Professors right after she had just had a huge panic attack had _not_ helped. She felt James squeeze her hands comfortingly, and tried to focus on that-so much so, that she missed Sirius walking over to James and coming up beside him. "Moony's already out, and Peter's watching over him…will you need any help over here?"

"Maybe…she's supposed to take this potion, but not find out that it's a sleeping potion, because apparently she tries to refuse to take them. If she starts trying to fight it, I could use your help in keeping her down."

"You got it, mate." Sirius murmured, clapping James on the back. They kept their conversation quiet so as not to be overheard, but Leah wouldn't have heard them anyways. She was still too focused on calming down to pay attention to them. Sirius poked her in the shoulder. "Hey, Newt-you have to take this Calming Draught, all right?" Leah nodded, and wearily took it-Madame Pomfrey gave it to her almost every time she was in the hospital wing, so she was used to it by now. As she took it, she could feel herself calming down, and James, Sirius, and Peter could see the shakiness in her hands decrease. After five minutes or so, when that potion had fully taken effect, James held out the other potion to her. "And this one."

"What is it?"

"I don't know…Madame Pomfrey didn't give me the name. She did say that it was good for you, though, so…" He held the potion bottle out again, and Leah slowly took it. She cast dubious looks at James and Sirius, but they simply smiled at her. She finally sighed, and drank the entire potion. The boys could tell that it had taken immediate effect, because she immediately sank back into the sheets, and her eyes began to flicker. She groaned. "Seriously? Why didn't you tell me that that was a sleeping potion?" She began to struggle against the sleeping potion, trying to stay awake and get out of the bed. Both Sirius and James laid a gentle hand on her shoulders, preventing her from rising. "Oh come on, guys…seriously?" she quietly murmured. As they held her down, she could feel the potion taking effect even more swiftly, bringing her even closer to sleep. "Don't you remember, Newtie? I'm always sirius!" Leah groaned again, and weakly tried to slap him. He easily caught her hand, and put it back on the bed. She kept trying to fight the potion, but it was becoming harder and harder to do so as her friends kept her motionless in the bed. As she was nearing sleep, she muttered almost inaudibly, "I don't want to remember…" Both James and Sirius immediately understood. Leah was partially fighting the sleeping potion because she was incredibly stubborn. However, she was also fighting it because of what she thought she would see in her dreams. She thought that she would be haunted the entire time she slept with what Montair, Adolph, Bennett, and Fox did to her. Sirius ruffled her hair gently as James knelt down by her head, looking directly into her eyes. "Leah-it's a potion for _dreamless_ sleep. You won't see them at all while you sleep, don't worry. And if- _if_ -something were to happen in here while you're asleep, Padfoot, Wormtail, and I are here to protect both you and Moony. Just relax, and let go." His words seemed to bring immediate comfort and reassurance to Leah, as she nodded slightly, and slowly leaned back, her eyes nearly closing as she did so. Right before she fell asleep, she saw Sirius lean over slightly, and felt him softly brush his lips across her forehead. "Sweet dreams, Leah." he whispered. He then got up and looked over at Peter, starting to ask him something. James quietly huffed in laughter, smiling as he watched his friend. He then noticed Leah looking over at him and softly grinned down at her. "Thanks…" she muttered quietly. James quietly chuckled, before doing the same as Sirius and gently kissing her forehead. "You're welcome. Now go to sleep, Leah. Just rest." He watched as she hummed softly, and closed her eyes. Within about thirty seconds, her breathing had evened out, and everyone could tell that Leah had fallen asleep. Once they knew that, Peter let out a chuckle. "Well, would you look at that-Sirius has gone maternal!" James let out a chuckle as Sirius glared over at him. "Come on, Wormy. It's impossible _not_ to feel maternal around Leah. I mean, look at James! He's still madly in love with Evans, but he did the same thing I did."

James scoffed, but was grinning-and his smile reached all the way up to his eyes. "Leave me out of this, you hear? I can't let word of this get out to Evans!"

"Yeah, cause it's not like she's friends with Leah or anything like that…" Sirius commented dryly. Before James could sarcastically reply, Madame Pomfrey walked back towards them. "Good job, boys." Madame Pomfrey murmured. "Usually she's too stubborn to let people help her…or to see her in this sort of state."

"Is she in the hospital wing a lot, Madame Pomfrey? From what Dumbledore said, people usually only see her in here when Elliot's here…" Peter commented. Madame Pomfrey shook her head. "No, Peter-she's in a lot more than that. She'll usually be in anywhere between one to three times a week."

"You're kidding."

"No, Mr. Potter, I can assure you that I am not kidding. Ask her when she wakes up if you don't believe me."

While this discussion was going on, Montair, Adolph, Bennett, and Fox had all been summoned to Dumbledore's office. None of them had any idea what was going on, but they figured it was either something really good, or really bad. "Oh, come on-how would they have found out what happened? It's not like any of us would have told what happened… _right_?" All three of the others-Fox, Adolph, and Bennett-shook their heads. "Nope-none of us have told anyone. Maybe that stupid werewolf and his idiot friends found out about it somehow?" The rest of their conversation was suddenly cut off by the noise of a throat clearing in front of them. They all looked up to see Professor McGonagall standing there. "Follow me." she said ominously. She then walked off, the four following behind her. They walked into Dumbledore's office, surprised to see Professor Slughorn there as well. "Professor Slughorn…is there a problem?" Montair questioned nervously. Slughorn stared darkly at him. "Why don't you tell us, Montair…starting with why you locked a fourteen-year-old girl in a cupboard, tied up and gagged, with no food or water, for _thirteen hours_ , in the Shrieking Shack, where you somehow found out that a werewolf resides. Would you say that that in any way constitutes a problem?" The four glared daggers at each other.

Who had told on the others?

"I'm assuming at this point you are wondering which of you informed us as to what had happened. Luckily for your friendship, it was none of you…but unfortunately for you, the werewolf and his friends rescued her and got her back safely to Hogwarts…where she confirmed that her captors were the four of you." Montair let out a dark growl, but other than that, no one responded. Dumbledore sighed. "I'd rather not force you four to speak, but if you do not, I will be forced to resort to more drastic measures." He stared each of them down with an extremely cold stare for a while, and everyone could see that Adolph and Bennett-Montair's two ugly henchmen-were starting to crack. Finally, Adolph broke. "It was us, Professor. We wanted to teach her a lesson once and for all."

"Adolph-shut up, you brainless miscreant!" Montair whispered harshly. His friend refused to listen to him, however, simply looking at Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Slughorn. "The four of us grabbed Leah after dinner and locked her in the cupboard, since we knew that there would be a werewolf in the room last night."

"Why would you willingly risk a young girl being bitten by a werewolf?'

"I don't know…Bennett and I didn't really think about it. Montair and Fox did the thinking-Bennett and I just went along with it." Dumbledore sighed, looking to McGonagall and Slughorn. "Minerva, Horace…have you decided on punishments for your students?" Both nodded. McGonagall went first. "Fox…I cannot believe that you would join in such a deplorable and despicable act. You have not only brought shame upon yourself and your House, but you have nearly led to the turning or death of a young girl. That is something that I will not stand for. You will not be expelled, but you are very close. You will be serving detentions for the rest of the year, and I will be informing your parents of what you've done. You will also apologize to Leah, and you will be required to-"

"Oh, come on, Professor! Why am I being punished for treating a mentally incompetent person the way they deserve to be treated? She doesn't belong here at Hogwarts-she can't function like a normal person like the rest of us, and could never be as competent as we are-"

"Fox!" As the boy shut his mouth, McGonagall looked at him harshly. "You know nothing of what Leah is capable of. She is just as capable as anyone else here, even if she does not like to be the center of attention. You will not treat her any differently because her brain does not function in the same way as yours." She sighed again. "She may be in Ravenclaw, but she currently acts more like a Gryffindor than you. And before you get any ideas, you are forbidden from telling anyone of the certain student's lycanthropy. If you do not think you are capable of keeping this secret, we can wipe it from your memory. But if you tell anyone, you will be expelled from Hogwarts. Now, go back to your dormitory. I shall speak to you more later. One hundred points will be taken from Gryffindor for your atrocious act." Fox glared angrily at her, swiftly turning around and stomping out of the room as he did so.

Professor Slughorn then cleared his throat. "Montair, I have been aware of your treatment of Leah, but I did not act upon my uneasiness in the hopes that you would eventually grow out of it. However, you have shown that you are not able to treat Leah as an actual human being, and understand that she is not a second-class person just because of her mental state, similar to how pure-blood wizards do not have the right to treat half-bloods and Muggle-borns as inferior simply because of their family. You are one of those who give Slytherin House a bad name, due to your detestable treatment of others. Adolph and Bennett, you two are right up with him, even though you claimed to just be 'following the leader', as it were. You should have recognized that what you were doing was wrong, and tried to do something to stop Montair." He sighed. "I am taking fifty points each from the two of you for your work in this problem…and one hundred points from you, Montair. As with Fox, you will all have detention for the rest of the year, and you will be apologizing to Leah. In addition, if I hear any more about you treating Leah as you have so far, you will lose more than points. I will be writing to your parents, so that they understand exactly what you have done here. You are also forbidden to tell anyone about the certain student's lycanthropy. If you do, as with Fox, you will be expelled. Much work has gone into ensuring the student's safety here at Hogwarts, and we want you in no way to jeopardize those efforts. If you don't think you can keep it, we can erase that memory. But if not, you are not allowed to tell anyone. Now-get back to your dormitory and stay there. There will be no adventuring for you tonight."

"Ssh! You'll wake her up!"

Leah heard the voice as if it was coming from a great distance away, as if there was a great void between her and them. The voice was deep and familiar, and Leah used it as an anchor as she slowly pulled herself back to consciousness. She opened her eyes, a wave of tiredness already crashing over her. Looking around, the hospital wing was completely dark. Leah couldn't see anyone besides her and Remus (yet), so she figured that Madam Pomfrey had lowered the lights for their sake. Then, she flinched. A large group of figures was clustered around their beds. Leah opened her eyes a bit wider, and realized that most of them were her Quidditch teammates. Lily, Marlene, and Mary were also there, as well as a couple of Gryffindor team members.

"Are you kidding me? Montair and his cronies left Leah in a cupboard for _thirteen hours_ , and we're _not_ going to go after them?"

"We promised Leah that we wouldn't." Peter squeaked out. She could tell that it was Peter because his voice was higher than the others. Sirius was a bit lower than him, with a warmer-but sometimes harsh-tenor. James had a deeper and soothing baritone voice, and Remus's was deeper than them all. It was Remus who was speaking now, she recognized, from the bed to her right. "That's one of the only reasons that she would tell us who it was. She doesn't want us to go after those four idiots and get into big trouble."

"What about us-we promised no such thing!"

"Joel, do you really think that she'd want you all to get into trouble over her? She's too stubborn for that. She'd rather deal with it herself, or have Dumbledore and McGonagall deal with it, since that's their job."

"I still think-"

"Shut up, Joel…you're thinking too loud." Leah slurred sleepily. Everyone froze, and turned towards her. None of them had realized that she had awoken. "Hey, Le," Lily murmured, coming to sit on her bed, "how are you feeling?" Leah tried to shift a bit in her bed, stopping quickly, due to both a sharp pain appearing as soon as she tried to move, and a hand gently holding her shoulder to stop her. "Um…I'll feel better eventually. I'm not doing so hot right now, but…"

Lily sighed, gently squeezing her ankle. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, Leah. You shouldn't have had to be there in the first place." Leah smiled softly up at the older girl. "It's not your fault, Lily…Montair would have gone after me anyways, regardless if you were there or not. Don't worry-I'll be all right in time. I think I need to take a nap, but other than that I'll be all right." The others chuckled gently. Leah's statement was certainly an understatement. After she had fallen asleep, Madame Pomfrey had finished looking over her injuries. To the boys' horror, she informed them that based on the injuries Leah had accrued, it was almost certain that Montair and his friends had subjected Leah to the Cruciatus curse, or something similar. She would need at least another day of sleep to recover from everything the four idiots had done to her.

"Leah…I think _I_ have the right to say it now…you're an idiot." Elliot said, a clearly joking tone in his voice. Leah rolled her eyes, sighing exasperatedly. The other members of her team laughed, recognizing their own words directed at her. "Yeah, yeah…shut up, Elliot…" she smiled. "Don't go after Montair and his idiots, though. They're getting punished enough by Professor Dumbledore…I don't want you guys to get expelled or worse over me."

"But Leah-"

" _No_ , Carter." Leah glared at them with all the authority she could muster while lying on a bed badly injured, and her teammates finally nodded. "Very well. But you get better quickly, you hear?" Joseph replied, grinning down at Leah. "We do need you to beat Hufflepuff for the Cup, after all."

"Haha…yeah, yeah-I'll do my best." she smiled. The others smiled at her, before slowly leaving the hospital wing (since Madame Pomfrey was coming on the warpath straight for them). Lily was the last person to leave, looking at the Marauders as she did so. "Look after her, all right?" she entreated, looking each of them in the eye. The four boys nodded almost immediately. "Don't worry, Lily…Leah's already made James and Sirius go all maternal. She'll be fine with us." Peter muttered. James and Sirius mock-protested, but it was very clear that they didn't really mean it. Lily nodded, chuckling slightly. "Good." She patted Leah's ankle once more. "I'll stop by and see you later, all right?" Leah nodded, and Lily reluctantly exited the room. As soon as she knew everyone was gone, Leah slumped back against the pillows, clearly having pushed herself beyond her limits to reassure her friends that she was all right. She could tell that her friends were smirking above her head. "You should probably go back to sleep, Leah…you're not fully recovered yet." Sirius murmured, looking down at his friend.

"Oh, come on-I just woke up! Moony doesn't have to go back to sleep!"

"That's because he heals faster than you do…especially since he wasn't hit with the Cruciatus curse." Leah sucked in a breath, looking away from her friends.

"I was hoping you wouldn't find out about that…" Long and slender fingers-Remus's, she recognized-gently patted her hand. "We find out everything eventually, Leah. That's the thing with older brothers-we can get a bit overbearing at times." Leah gently huffed, her eyes twinkling. The unspoken " _I'll say_ " was not missed by any of the boys. James barely held in a grin. "Still, Madame Pomfrey has agreed to let us watch over you for right now. And that means that we can tell you to go back to sleep. You know you need it." Hazel eyes met hazel in a brief challenge, but finally, Leah sighed in defeat. "Fine." she murmured quietly, slumping back into the bed. Sirius ruffled her hair _again_ , which this time led to Leah actually managing to slap him. "What was that for?" he good-naturedly griped. Leah rolled her eyes, smirking up at him. "You know exactly what that was for." she replied. Sirius chuckled, lightly swatting her in return. "Prongs, Wormy and I are going to go and grab a couple of things from the dormitory. We'll be back soon." James nodded. He knew precisely where Sirius and Peter were going-to get chocolate that Lily would have saved for Remus. Apparently she had also left some candy for Leah, but Leah had no idea. The two quickly headed out of the hospital wing, leaving James, Remus, and Leah behind. James looked over towards Remus. He had been more focused on Leah the entire time, trusting Sirius and Peter to take care of Remus. That didn't mean that he wasn't concerned about his friend, however. As the unofficial leader of their group, James took the welfare of his friends very seriously. As if he could feel James's gaze, Remus turned and smiled up at him. "I'm fine, Prongs. I'm a bit sore, yes, but that happens even after the good transformations. The bad ones left me much worse off, as you well know. I'm all right."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, you overprotective lump. Padfoot and Wormtail are surprisingly capable at times like this, you know?" James rolled his eyes, smiling in relief.

"Hang on, Moony…are you doing _homework_?"

"Of course, James…I do have about two days of missing work to do, after all. No better time to do it than now, right?"

"You're incorrigible, you know that?"

"Of course I am. It's why you four love me, after all."

During their bantering, both boys had been subtly watching Leah. They had learned, surprisingly, that listening to the two of them go back and forth actually-eventually-caused Leah to fall asleep. It worked somewhat with Sirius in the mix, but not with Peter. Leah had hypothesized that it was because their voices sounded similar to her father's and brother's, both who had low voices, since that had happened to her before at home. The boys were never exactly sure, but Leah's explanation seemed to make as much sense as any. She was acting stubborn again, and so they wanted to try and get her to fall asleep this way. They also just really enjoyed bantering. They didn't know if she realized it or not, but within a few minutes, she had fallen asleep. However, within another few minutes, she was moving around slightly, quietly whimpering in fear. "Great…she's having nightmares." Remus muttered. James nodded, already gently shaking the younger girl's shoulder. "Wake up, Leah. It's all right-it's just a nightmare. You're not with those idiots…you're here with Moony and I. Moony's still an idiot, but not that kind. Just wake up." She soon did as James asked, opening her eyes a bit before groaning and closing them again. "I just want to get some sleep without seeing them again…" she whined. "I'm already terrified of them during the day…" A couple tears leaked out from her eyes, and she turned her head away from Remus, ashamed that he would see her crying-even though he already had. However, she had forgotten completely that James was sitting to her left. It came as a shock, then, when she felt a warm hand cupping her left cheek, and the thumb gently wiping away the tears trickling down her face. "We know, Leah. Don't worry, you will. And they're not going to get near you again-we promise."

"How do you know?"

"Hey-it's us! Plus the rest of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team…and some of the Gryffindor Quidditch team…and Evans, Marlene, and Mary…between the twenty or so of us, we'll make sure that Montair and his idiots never get near you again." Leah nodded almost imperceptibly, leaning a slight bit into James's touch. "That won't stop me from seeing them in my dreams, though." James nodded, even though he knew she wouldn't see him. All three of them knew that that would happen as soon as she closed her eyes. She sighed darkly, trying to settle more comfortably in the bed. Suddenly, James gasped. "Leah, I have an idea. But for it to work, you have to trust me, all right?"

Leah nodded quietly. "I always have." she murmured. James rubbed his thumb over her cheek comfortingly. "All right then…just relax." Leah nodded again, taking deep breaths, and trying to relax. The noises in the room seemed to slowly fade and become muted, which made it easier. Remus's fingers softly rubbing against hers _definitely_ helped. She was also surprised to hear James humming a little. " _He has a good voice…even if it's just humming._ " she thought to herself, and opened her eyes in order to tell him so. When he noticed her looking at him, he smiled softly at her, before placing his left hand on her forehead and sliding it down until it covered her eyes, forcing them to close, and preventing her from seeing anything. "Close your eyes, Leah." he murmured softly, his voice low and soothing. Leah did as he said, still confused. She wasn't sure what James was going to do, but she hoped he would do it soon, before she actually fell asleep again and began to have nightmares. When James knew that Leah would do what he asked, he removed his left hand and resumed quietly humming, while subtly drawing his wand and making eye contact with Remus. The older boy nodded, understanding at once what James needed him to do-which was to keep Leah distracted from noticing what James was doing. He continued to rub Leah's hand gently while James carefully aimed his wand towards Leah's head (while still humming). Once he was sure that Leah was distracted to the point that she wouldn't notice what he was doing (he had cast a- _very_ light-Confundus Charm on Leah beforehand, right when she closed her eyes, just to help the distraction out a bit), James quietly murmured, " _Animum lenire_." A soft gold stream rippled from his wand and surrounded Leah. Both boys watched as the gold stream seemed to flow into her, and Leah relaxed rather quickly, seemingly forgetting that there was anyone else in the room. "Is this what it's supposed to do?" Remus whispered. James nodded, his eyes not leaving Leah's face. She, in turn, gently hummed, turning her head a little more into James's right hand, which was still resting on her cheek. She seemed absolutely at peace, and James grinned as he murmured again, his wand still pointing towards her head, " _No somnia_." Leah let out another gentle hum, almost completely asleep, before James murmured one last spell. " _Sopor_." With that, Leah slid into a deep sleep. James sighed in relief, sitting back in his chair once he was sure that she was sleeping. "That was incredible, James…I know _Sopor_ -the sleeping spell-but what do the other ones mean?"

" _Animum lenire_ means something along the lines of 'soothe the mind', and _No somnia_ means 'no dreams'." James explained, careful to put his wand away before he said the spells, in case he accidently went and casted them again. "My dad used them a couple times on my mum when she would get really overwhelmed by things with her family. I completely forgot about them until just now. The person has to be completely distracted before you cast them, though, so…thanks for your help."

"No problem. How long will she be out, do you think?"

"I don't know…she definitely needs the rest, and I may have made them a bit stronger than I normally would…hopefully for a while. Madame Pomfrey said that she'll be staying here until tomorrow, at any rate."

"I totally understand that…I just don't know if Leah will, though."

"Well, if she stays asleep through the night, it won't matter."

"Who's asleep?"

" _PADFOOT!_ "

"What? I'm just asking a question!"

"James just got her to sleep, you complete and utter doltface! If you keep carrying on like that, you'll wake her up, and it'll all be for nothing!" Remus said this with more than a little bit of venom and bite in his voice, which didn't surprise the other boys at all. The morning after the transformation, if it was one where they accompanied him, he didn't have a way to let the anger of the wolf loose, since his friends kept him from it. Therefore, he worked through it during the day, getting extremely snappish with anyone who made him frustrated or mad. "All right, Moony-I'll be careful. Here-this is from Lily." He handed Remus three large bars of some Muggle chocolate Lily had. She knew about his "furry little problem", and also knew that chocolate made him feel better during the day. Therefore, she stockpiled chocolate, so that one of the boys could always come and grab some for Remus. Remus immediately opened one and started eating. The sugar and caffeine in the chocolate always seemed to help him to calm down, and to be a bit more civil towards others. "Manks, Mirius." he muttered through a mouthful. Sirius grinned. "No problem, Remus. We don't want you to go all crazy on some first years, do we?" Remus rolled his eyes, chuckling gently.

"Is Leah really asleep?" Peter queried, looking over at the younger girl, who was snoring slightly in the bed. She rolled over a little bit, and James rubbed her shoulder. "Yeah, she's out…and James did an interesting bit of magic to get her there." Remus murmured, smiling at his friends. Then, he sighed. "You guys should go to sleep…I know these nights take a lot out of you too. You are excused from classes today, after all, and Lily's taking notes…go get some sleep. I'll take care of myself and Leah. She should hopefully be out for today anyways, so I'll get some homework done." The other boys nodded, blinking slowly.

"All right…if you need anything, just let us know." Sirius replied, clapping Remus on the back as he did so. Remus nodded, and the three other Marauders headed out, heading towards Gryffindor Tower to get some rest. Remus resettled in the bed, looking over at Leah with a fond smile as he did so. He then pulled out a Charms essay and started working on it, his quill scratching across the parchment the only noise in the room. He _did_ have homework to do, after all, and it wasn't going to do itself. He didn't envy Leah the amount of homework that she would have when she woke up either. The younger girl didn't seem to understand the meaning of the word "overcommitted".

" _Then again"_ , he mused, _"neither do I"_.

By the end of the week, Leah was finally released from the hospital wing. She had been rather lonely by herself, but usually one of her friends came by when they could each day to hang out with her. She even woke up once to loud noises in the hall, sounding suspiciously like Montair and his cronies. Before she could react, however, she felt a gentle pressure on her chest, and she looked down to see a black dog lying contentedly on her chest, looking straight up at her. "Hey, Sirius." she muttered quietly. The black dog leaned up and licked her cheek a little, before spreading out, effectively preventing her from getting up and out of bed. Leah sighed, rolling her eyes. "I'm not going to try to get out of bed, Sirius. I'm too tired to do anything." She heard a gentle chuckle from behind her, but before she could fully turn and see who it was, she felt a gentle kiss on her forehead, heard someone whisper, " _Sopor_ ", and quickly fell back asleep, the noises dying down in the background.

As she headed across the courtyard, she pulled her cloak around herself a little more. She got cold easily, and even though it was a rather mild day, she was still freezing. "Darn Scottish weather…why can't I live in one of those warm American states?" she muttered to herself.

"Le!"

A sudden noise made her turn around-and then almost fall over, as Lily Evans slammed into her in a large hug. Once she let go, Leah started to tip backwards (still off-balance from the hug), but was caught by someone before she could fall too far.

"Wow, Newtie-if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were falling for me!" a voice boomed from over her head. Leah looked up and groaned. "Of course I'm not, you twerp. Now will you help me up?" Sirius chuckled, but levered her to her feet, before catching the younger girl in a hug. "Good to see you out of the hospital." he smiled. Leah grinned back at him as Peter, James, and Remus began to approach. "It's good to see you out of the hospital, Leah-I missed hanging out with you last weekend." Lily griped. "Are you going with anyone to Hogsmede this weekend?"

"Well, um…you know…me and people…and…you know…" Leah slowly murmured, looking at the ground. Lily gently gripped her friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, Leah-you won't have to interact with people. Marlene and Mary are both sick in bed, and…you know about Severus and I. We can hang out together the whole time." She smiled. "And who knows-we might even meet up with these four if James behaves." Leah chuckled as James began to mock-protest, his hands gesturing wildly as he did so. Leah quickly caught Sirius and Remus's eyes, and all three tried very hard not to laugh. Eventually, she nodded. "Yeah, I'll go with you, Lily." she smiled. Lily grinned back. "Excellent. I've got some stuff to take care of, but you take care of these idiots, all right?" Leah smiled, nodding as she did so. Lily patted her shoulder, before walking off. Leah then turned to the Marauders, hugging each of them in turn. "It's good to see you all again-I was going a bit stir crazy in there."

"You seem to like hospitals as much as we do."

"So, not at all, then?"

"Exactly." Remus chuckled, gently ruffling Leah's hair. She grinned, leaning into the touch. James and Sirius stared at him in shock. "Wait a second-how come _he_ can do that and not get slapped?"

Leah grinned at him. "Because he does it sincerely, while you and James just do it to tease me." Remus smiled down at her, while James and Sirius just rolled their eyes. Then, each of them grabbed one of Leah's hands. "Come on, Newt-we're going somewhere, and you're coming with us!"

"Wait-where are we going?" she queried, trying to dig in her heels. The Marauders wouldn't let her stop, however. Remus muttered something (what it was, she never knew), and almost immediately something covered her eyes, preventing her from seeing anything. Peter then nudged her into motion from behind, while James and Sirius each pulled an arm. They didn't want her to panic, however, and so made sure to be extremely gentle, talking to themselves and Leah to make sure she knew that it wasn't like with Montair and his cronies. After a few minutes, she felt something soft under her feet, and realized that they were walking down a gentle incline. "Where are we going?" she queried, but the others shushed her. Finally, they arrived at a location near the water (if her hearing was truly what she thought it was). A second later, one of the boys removed her blindfold, and she gasped. "What the-how did-when did-what?" The Marauders had led her to a spot by the lake, where they had set up a small picnic. The boys sat down and guided her to do so as well. "We wanted to celebrate you getting out of the hospital, and we know you've been studying for a long time without a break, as have we all, so-tada!" Sirius finished, waving his hands for dramatic flair as he spoke. Leah grinned, shyly smiling at all four of the boys. "Thank you all-for everything. I couldn't have made it through this year without you."

"You're welcome, Leah-it was our pleasure." Remus replied, smiling over at her. The rest of the day was spent amongst themselves, simply enjoying each other's company. At a certain point, Sirius tipped something into her drink. Leah didn't notice, however, and fell asleep not five minutes later, her head and upper body curled up in James's lap. The older boy was slowly running his hand through her hair, simply content to relax in the sun. After all, he reasoned, Montair, Adolph, Bennett, and Fox were serving detention for at least the rest of the year, Leah was healthy (ish), and everything was right with the world.

It was finally over.

They had finally won.

 _ **A/N 2: Wowza…so…this chapter got way out of hand…it originally was just supposed to have the boys find Leah, Leah tell everyone what happened, and then a bit of aftermath. Not this….ness. Although, the fluffy ending is great…**_ __ _ **I don't get to write many picnics, so this one is fantastic.**_ __ _ **Plus…I don't know…this is definitely one of my favorite chapters that I've written. ;) But this chapter also means that this story is over…wow…it's so weird to have these sorts of stories end, since I've been working on them for forever! I'm super thankful to all of you who have read, favorited, followed, and/or reviewed, whether you're a newcomer to my stories or a veteran of them (a.k.a. biankies and a few others)-I really appreciate it! If you're interested in reading more with Leah, please check out my other Harry Potter stories! This story is the first in the "series", followed by "We Look After Our Own" (Leah: 6**_ _ **th**_ _ **year, Marauders/Lily: 7**_ _ **th**_ _ **years), "A Giant Mission" (Leah: 18, Marauders/Lily: 19), and "The End of All Things"(Begins after "Goblet of Fire", continues until after "Deathly Hallows:). I also write stories in the Newsies/Narnia/LOTR/etc. fandom, so please feel free to check them out! (WARNING: ANYTHING OLDER THAN "TROUBLE ON THE PONDEROSA IS CONSIDERED A "DUD STORY"-READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!)**_

 _ **Again, thanks so much to everyone who has interacted with this story in any way…you guys are what motivate me to keep writing!**_ __

 _ **I hope you enjoyed this story, and I'll see you all soon!**_

 _ **God bless,**_

 _ **1monster2**_


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